Slayer
by Jay 2K Winger
Summary: Beneath a frozen Martian cave, the Hive have buried something. Something that will rip and tear its way through anything before it. And a Guardian fireteam has just set it loose...
1. Chapter 1

"You know, I still have nightmares about going into Hive spaces."

Rega-7 rolled her optics as she sighted through her scope across the chilly chasm, deep below the Martian surface. "You only let us know this every time we go into one," she pointed out.

"Yeah, because going into one brings the nightmares back." Morgan glanced around the stone tunnel. Ice covered almost every surface, and likely would for ages. There was light down here, but it was either of the orange-reddish hue common to the Braytech that Rasputin had co-opted, or it was the sickly green glow that accompanied the Hive everywhere. Neither really gave the Titan much comfort. "Why are we always the ones the Vanguard sends into Hive territory?"

"Because we're good at killing Hive," Rega slowly worked her sight-line back across the expanse of the chasm, doing another sweep. "And because we always come back."

Morgan grimaced and compulsively checked his weapon. "Great. Can't wait to not sleep for weeks after this."

At last, their Warlock looked up from her examination of Hive runes left in by block of worm spoor. "I'd like to hear about your dreams," she said brightly. "Oneirological studies have shown that a Guardian's dreams, in addition to giving insight into psychological wellness, can sometimes be prophetic-"

"Not the time, Wahei," Rega interrupted her. She rose from her crouch, slinging her sniper rifle as she went. "Way looks clear for now. But I think I saw some acolytes and knights prowling deeper on. I couldn't get a clean shot on them." She turned to the Warlock. "Anything you've found so far?"

Wahei Ohr shook her head. "Nothing that we don't already know. Typical Hive mantras." She gestured at the runes. "'Burn the Sky. Serve the Deep. Crush, kill, destroy.' Things in that vein." She squinted as she peered into the deeper ice. "But Vizier says that there's Hive construction beneath all this ice. Nokris and his brood were making themselves at home here. I think they knew they were in for the long haul."

"It's more than that," Vizier, her Ghost, piped up. "I'd swear the construction here is as old as the Lunar temples. Maybe older." The Ghost swiveled to look into the ice as well. "But it's always so hard to tell with the Hive. Even freshly spawned Thrall give the appearance of being long-dead things."

Rega-7 shrugged. "I'm sure you guys could spend days studying it all," she jerked a thumb toward the long winding slope down the chasm into the deeper tunnels. "But this is not the time. We need to go deeper, find out what else the Frozen Hive have down here."

Morgan turned to his own Ghost. "Eyeball, think you can do a pulse-scan, give us a general map to go by?" With a bob in the air, the Ghost floated out into the space above the chasm, the facets of its shell opening as pulses of light emitted from its core. Collapsing the shell back into place, it zipped back over to the Titan.

"Guys, I think we're gonna have problems," Eyeball sounded worried. "I'm getting a _lot_ of movement below. A whole lot of Hive. Including a few champions. You know, the big ones."

"See?" Morgan shook his head. "I knew coming down here was a bad idea."

Rega slapped him in the chest with the back of her hand. "Suck it up, Titan. We've dealt with worse." She took a running start before leaping across the chasm, landing below on the slope.

Morgan shouted after her. "There's _always_ worse!" He turned to Wahei. "Seriously, does she forget the time we woke up that Abomination on Luna?"

The Awoken just smiled at him. "I'm sure she hasn't. Relax, Morgan. It's not as if you're down here alone. Now come on, we need to find out why there's so many Hive down here." She leapt out into open space, gliding down gracefully.

The Titan miserably slapped on his helmet. "Sure, because the reason is going to be _good_ to know."

* * *

The cavern opened into a sort of an antechamber. Wahei looked at the columns and the carvings on the stone walls, pulling her journal from her pack. "Hmm. Archival runic... not dissimilar from the etchings beneath the temples on Luna... this must be their version of the World's Grave."

"Fantastic," Morgan grumbled. "We found where Nokris keeps his diary. Can't wait to read it. 'Dear Evil Diary, today I killed a bunch of pink apes. Praise to the worm god. Tomorrow I think I'll do it all over again. The end.'" He leaned away from Rega's reflexive swat toward the back of his head.

The Hunter eyed the antechamber below. A squadron of Knights stood in a semicircle, facing inward toward the great, chained doors, their swords thrust down into the floor. Even more Acolytes knelt in between them all. In front of all these, facing the doors, there was hunched a form in a shroud with an ornate headdress, chitinous mass twisted up into gnarled horns. Metal links wrapped around the figure and even pooled around where it knelt.

"Got a witch down there," Rega-7 informed the others. "Looks like an important one. Chaukeedar, check intel. We got any info on who it might be?"

"'She,'" Wahei corrected her. "Hive witches are female."

Rega shot her a look, and without breaking her gaze, repeated, "Any info on who _it_ might be?"

The Hunter's Ghost piped up. "Checking records..." The green-shelled Ghost blinked his eye and looked up at the fireteam. "I actually found something, buried deep in the World's Grave." Chaukeedar indicated the Wizard below. "That's Kateäk, the Queen of Chains."

Morgan checked the magazine on his shotgun, reflecting, "Been a while since we killed a Hive royal."

"Always supposing they _stay_ dead," Wahei tapped her stylus against her chin thoughtfully. "That's always the tricky thing about high-ranking Hive, they tend to be Ascendant, with throne-worlds and oversouls, and so they have that trick of just coming back if you manage to kill them. I mean, if you just look at the mess going on in the Dreaming City-"

Rega interrupted, "Not the time, Wahei." Something occurred to her. "Chaukeedar, I thought all the records of Nokris and his brood had been struck from the World's Grave."

"It's true there's no records of anything about Nokris in there," her Ghost confirmed. "But the library there is not comprehensive." His shell-facets twitched a few times before he blinked again. "The records of Kateäk are sparse, but there's something here about her ... imprisonment, I think."

Vizier, Wahei's Ghost, piped up. "If that's what it translates to. I've studied a lot of Hive lore and records, but Chaukeedar's right. It's pretty sparse, and we don't have a lot of context."

The team's Titan coughed. "Does it matter? I see a Hive witch down there, and any plan that takes one of them off the field is a good plan, yeah?"

"Morgan's right. You leave a witch in play, they'll start doing rituals, and if they start doing rituals, then _bad _things start happening." Rega lined up her rifle. "Once I pull this trigger, shit's gonna kick off. You guys ready?"

"Ready to give 'em the Business!" Morgan gave the barrels of his gun a quick rev.

The Exo rolled her eyes. "Really?"

"C'mon, that one never gets old."

"It was old before you started saying it the first time."

Morgan shrugged, then started to move off. "Gonna get in position. Stay in touch on the comms."

Wahei, meanwhile, was consulting notes in her journal while in conference with her Ghost. "If the intel we got from Rasputin is right, there should be some Clovis Bray facility down here. Something related to mining, I think."

"Must be what's behind those doors." Rega settled in behind her sniper rifle. "Now, let's deal with these Hive."

* * *

Morgan posted up behind a stalagmite as he ran a final check on his weapons. "I'm in place. What's the play, Rega?"

"On my go, 'nade the hell out of those knights, then keep the acolytes busy. Wahei, pick them off with your scout rifle, and get ready to pop a Nova in the witch's face. I'll keep shooting her in the face until she goes down, but she might go down hard."

"She's a Hive queen," Wahei pointed out. "Not clear which of the Sovereigns she serves, but none of them elevate anyone to royal status without reason. So, yes, she's gonna go down hard. Also, I'm ready to go."

Rega's voice was steady. "Okay. In three, two-"

They heard the click of the trigger over their comms before the air thundered from the round's passage across the distance between the Hunter and her target. Then they saw Kateäk lift her head, turning with a languid air that belied the impossible speed with which she reacted. The witch raised a hand to intercept the bullet, a shimmering green field of energy blossoming into view. Her eyes gleamed with a frigid hatred through the gnarled headdress as she rose into the air, lengths of chain slithering off of her arms.

Rega cursed and her trigger clicked again, but again the witch flicked a hand and the green field of energy intercepted the round mid-flight. Around her, the knights and acolytes rose from their supplication, drawing their weapons. As one, the knights roared a challenge as they brandished their swords. The Hunter's voice broke over the comms, "New plan, just kill!"

Morgan stepped out of cover, spinning up the barrels of his weapon before unleashing a barrage of bullets toward the nearest knight. It staggered under the assault with a growl, trying to pull up a shield in front of itself, but it crumpled into ash and cracked chitin before it could finish. Across the antechamber, Wahei lined up a shot with her scout rifle and began pulling rounds through acolytes. Above, Rega kept trying to penetrate the witch's shield under a fusillade of sniper rounds, but Kateäk simply floated there, robes fluttering as she turned to regard the other two threats that had disturbed her.

Suddenly, Kateäk swept her arms out, her namesake links shooting out and into the walls around the antechamber. As Rega watched, these slithered over columns, and up over the ceiling, before locking into a Hive disk set into the ceiling. A deep bass note _thrummed_ through the chamber as Hive runes glowed in the disk._ "Lightborn..."_ The voice was high, dripping with cold malice. The Queen of Chains lowered her arms. The eldritch bindings she'd called forth to encircle the antechamber's boundaries had detached themselves from her, but this still left plenty to hang from her robes, to slither over her arms and around her deceptively frail body. _"You should not have come here."_

Rega's Ghost wobbled in the air. "Uh oh," Chaukeedar muttered, turning a terrified eye to the Hunter. "She just restricted our access to the Light... we're in one of those Darkness Zones now..."

Morgan blocked out the words of the Hive witch, instead hearing the Sweet Business click dry on its magazine. A surviving knight leapt toward him, but the Titan snapped up a shotgun and blasted its helmet off, along with a good chunk of its face. He racked another shell into the chamber as the knight fell, hearing the shrieking of thrall approaching, but turned first to the next knight that slashed at him, side-stepping its swing before pumping a hole through its armor.

Their Warlock seemed to dance under a knight's slash, one palm raising and catching a leaping thrall by the face. The Light of the Void flickered around her as the wretched creature shrieked before withering in her grasp. With another movement, she ducked in close under the knight's thrust, slapping a Void grenade to its chest, then Blinking away as the knight detonated, taking a swarm of thrall with it.

Kateäk began to weave her arms as she hissed another incantation. A Hive ritual circle glowed in the floor, and then showed a formless abyss within it, before the hulking mass of an Ogre rose up to the surface. It shuffled forward two ponderous steps, but it was hampered by the chains that bound its body tightly, its legs shackled together, and its arms curled against its body and lashed there. All of the necrotic metal wrappings connected to the crude collar and cage-helmet that enclosed its head. It turned its head blindly until the witch touched a hand to its collar. With a crack, the chains attached to it shattered, and the beast's arms swung free.

She leaned down and hissed something Hivespeak into an earhole, then turned to regard the Guardians. _"Slaughter them, Gorunak." _The Queen of Chains twisted about in the air, vanishing from the room._ "Do not allow their Light below_."

The monstrous ogre stretched itself again, reaching up and wrenching part of the cage encircling its head free. Gorunak bellowed, chains jangling from its arms as it swung around and turned to look in the direction of Rega-7's perch. With another howl, a stream of vile energy poured forth from the cracked cage surrounding the creature's face. The Exo Hunter dove away, leaping off the air and drawing out her submachine gun as she went. The fusillade of shots she sent at the beast caromed off of its helmet and seemed to merely annoy it as it turned that hate-spewing gaze after her.

"Morgan, get its attention!" Wahei called as she loaded a drum into her grenade launcher. The Titan raised the minigun and bellowed a challenging roar of his own at Gorunak before the stream of bullets started chewing into its thick, mutated hide. The ogre swung around toward him, swinging a claw toward him, and the length of chain still hanging from its wrist slapped into his belly. The thick links knocked Morgan off his feet, but before it could turn its fury on him, their Warlock pumped a salvo of grenades at it, which detonated around its head. Gorunak screamed with pain and rage as the concussions made the cage ring.

More violet energy poured out from that helmet as the ogre turned to Wahei now, raising a claw to shield its face as she emptied her magazine of grenades at it. The floor shook as it started to lumber toward her, but then flames blossomed, the light flickering across the walls and ice. Rega flung two handfuls of burning knives into Gorunak's exposed spine, drawing out another scream of agony. Wahei drew the Void around her before teleporting in close to the monster and unleashing a wild burst of Light under its jaw. The ogre staggered back, which was when Morgan's ballistic flight crashed into its belly with the sound of thunder and the fury of lightning.

The explosion of energies sent Gorunak's smoldering carcass crashing into the great chained doors of the antechamber. The Light shimmered and flashed up along the chains until it reached the Hive disk in the ceiling, which cracked and fell to pieces around them. As it did so, the spectral bindings that Kateäk had woven into their surroundings vanished, and all three Guardians took in a deep breath as they felt their connection to the Light surge back.

Wahei turned to look at the shimmering of the Light fading into the ice and stone, and then to the shattered remnants of the disk. "So, the Hive are up to _something_ down here." She prodded Gorunak's corpse with the toe of her boot. "Between a Hive royal and a baby abomination, that says to me that they have something to hide down here. That bodes ill, considering the sorts of things we've seen down in the Hellmouth, or in the Dreadnought, and then what sort of secrets that the Witch-Queen might keep buried-"

"Wahei, this is not the time for one of your streams of consciousness," Rega admonished. "Not when we have a witch to hunt."

As one, the fireteam turned to the doors leading deeper into the caverns, which swung open at their Titan's kick.

* * *

_Trapped. Locked away. Buried. Sealed in darkness. Bound behind chain and stone and fury and fear._

_Not always. Freedom once. Family and fellowship. Mirth and plenty. Prosperity and Light._

_Death descended. Dread power dredged from Deep. Dealing death and doom._

_**Desperation. Loss. Treachery. Betrayal. **_

_Consumed by hatred. Dedicated to war. Steeped in Light. Visited destruction. Swore their doom._

_Snared by Enemy. Broke loose. Annihilated the hunt. Continued their doom._

_Surrounded by giants. Whetted blade with them. Slaughtered giants. Gifted them with doom._

_Tracked the Enemy. Fought across realms. Slayed their multitudes. Brought them their doom._

_**Hate. Rage. Power. Doom.**_

_Ambushed at last. Carved through Enemy. Tricked by witch. Spell woven. Swallowed in stone._

_Unable to slay. Unable to move. Unable to die._

_Felt the ages pass. Felt the Enemy thrive. Felt the rage burn._

_**Freedom. Relief. Escape. Light. **_

_A room. A cell. A stone casket. Broken chains._

_An Enemy. A thrall. Nothing. Smash._

_A cry. A howl. Acolytes. Victims. Rip._

_A snarl. A battlecry. Swords. Knights. Prey. Tear._

_**Free to hunt again. Free to slay again. Free to bring doom.**_

* * *

With a twist of reality, Kateäk, Queen of Chains, emerged into the realm of matter and mortality. She had felt the power thrum through the caverns when the Guardians slew Gorunak. While her children and followers awoke and went forth to hunt down the Lightbearers, she sailed through the tunnels and down into the Oubliette. To feel the Sky seeping into the blessed Deep from the Guardians' clumsy emanations... there would be consequences of such a thing.

Arriving in the darkened cell, the witch went still. Chitin and crumpled death-ash littered the floor. Shattered swords strewn about, half-embedded in the floor and walls. The Sarcophagus lid lay beside it, amid the broken chains that had previously held it shut. The space within the Sarcophagus stood empty, and the doors to the cell itself had been wrenched open, torn from their massive hinges.

In all the nightmares that Kateäk had visited upon the worlds across the universe, in all the dreams in which she had seen the fates of all things that did not fit the Final Shape, none had been as chilling as the one in which she now lived. The worst nightmare had become a reality. The Slayer was loose again.

_"We have to contain this."_

* * *

Afterword: I had this idea almost a year ago, and it's just been lurking in the back of my head since then. I finally got this chapter done, and I hope you enjoy it. This is not an indication I'm done with my other _Destiny_ fanfic, "Not All Who Are Fallen Are Lost," I'm just struggling a little bit with how I want to continue it. Ideas still keep coming to me, but a new job has cut into some of my writing time.


	2. Chapter 2

Morgan glanced back over his shoulder, eyes narrowing slightly as he peered about at their surroundings. Behind the Hive doors, the caverns slowly gave way to human architecture, but this showed the vile overgrowth of the Hive, with worm spoor and crystalline structure spreading across almost every surface. What illumination there was came from these crystals, as even the old Braytech down here appeared to be shut down. The only sounds were the fireteam's footsteps as they slowly advanced. He took a deep breath, grimacing at the stench of the Hive growth.

"Don't say it," Rega-7 cautioned him. The Exo did not even turn as she carefully ran her eye along the ruined offices and tunnels before them, sniper rifle raised as she did so. "You were about to make some remark about how quiet it is."

"You do have to admit he has a point." As usual, Wahei piped up with her own commentary, "It is remarkably silent in here. For all the trouble that the Hive went into to seal this place up, and to station a Hive royal here along with at least one abomination, all suggests that they have a particular interest in keeping people out of-"

"Wahei." This time Rega _did_ turn to shoot the Warlock a look. "Just because _is_ quiet in here, is not a reason for you to make it less quiet with your rambling."

"Oho, this isn't rambling," Morgan grumbled. "You haven't been here for one of her _real_ rambles. You get her going on the topic of dream-study or thanatology or Hive-lore or Fallen-lore and she just won't stop talking."

Wahei sniffed haughtily. "Forgive me if I find history and symbology interesting. Not all of us spend our downtime drinking or gambling."

Rega's eye might have twitched if her face had been designed for it. "Not all Hunters are gamblers, Wahei."

There was a thoughtful pause. "Rega, aren't you the one who got roped into babysitting those kinderguardians after a night of carousing with that New Monarchist last month?" Wahei's voice was innocent.

The Hunter paused. "I _was_ assigned to escort duty for some new Lights that had Wall duty." Her voice was carefully neutral. "It _might _have been within the last month." Another pause. "It _might_ have been after a night out with one of Hideo's clerks."

Wahei pressed on. "And did you happen to spend that night out at the Parlour down in the Peregrine District?"

Another pause. "Yes."

"How much glimmer were you in the hole for?"

Rega pounced on a potential escape. "None!" she declared, triumphant.

Wahei would not be deterred. "And how much silver?" This time, the Exo had the grace to look shifty.

Morgan interrupted, "Eyes up, ladies." He gestured with the barrel of his chaingun as the corridor opened up into a more expansive lobby. While it wasn't as spacious as the Futurescape, it bore all the hallmarks of the Clovis Bray tradition, and appeared to still have some power running. Animated screens were present on nearly surface, though some were cracked, and all of them were running the same idle loop.

"All hail the architects of the future," Rega-7 muttered as she watched the CB logo bounce around the screen. As she spoke, however, it slowed, and a new logo appeared, of a stylized triangle with a circle in the center. Similarly, around the lobby, lights were slowly coming online, screens shifting out of sleep mode.

A bright tenor voice spoke from the air. It was mildly garbled and distorted, as long-disused and partially corrupted machines struggled to function. "We-wel-welcome _toooo_ the U-u-utili_zaaaa_tion of-of-of-of-" There was a popping sound, before the AI voice spoke again. "Welcome to the Utilization of Areometallurgic Crystals project, brought to you by the magnificent minds at Clo-clo-Clovis _Braaaay_ Corpor-por-poration." There was another pop and the voice went silent.

Wahei promptly went to a likely looking terminal. "Vizier, see if we can find out what Bray was doing down here." While her Ghost worked to hack into the systems, she considered the screen with the triangle-logo, adding, "There has to be a reason why it's here. I wonder why Rasputin didn't flag this for Ana's attention."

"I don't think anyone really knows what the Old Man is thinking, not even his biggest fangirl." Morgan checked his shotgun again. "Eyeball, try to get us a basic map, if you can?"

Wahei sniffed a bit. "Ana Bray isn't a fangirl. She just happened to violate Vanguard policy in digging into her past, and persisted in investigating old Clovis Bray facilities, necessitating numerous Vanguard-ordered strike missions to curtail enemy interest in their sites, then happened to wake up the Warmind's core processor and in the process awaken a whole Hive cult that had fallen out of record-"

"Not the time, Wahei." Rega shook her head as she turned from her own consultation with her Ghost. "Chaukeedar says he's picking up a lot of Hive movement below us, and-" She paused, registering something that he'd told her, and looked at the green-shelled Ghost again. "-wait, moving _away_ from us?"

Chaukeedar bobbed in the air. "Yes. All of the Hive signatures I've detected are moving deeper into the structure and caverns. Um." He blinked his optic. "At speed, actually."

There was a thoughtful pause. "You mean to say, the Hive are _running_ from us?" Morgan was incredulous. "I mean, if we were the Hivebane, I could understand it..."

"Probably drawing back to regroup and defend." Rega shook her head. "That chain-witch seemed like the sort to play things smart. Why send swarms of Hive after us when she could just wait for us to come to her?"

Wahei called to them, "I think Vizier got some of the corruption in the computer cleared up, let's see if the AI has any more to say."

The hidden speakers emitted another few pops and warbles before it stabilized. Mostly. "The pr-pr-project began when mine_rrrrraaa_logic-ck-ck-cal scans detected c-cr-crystalline structure_eeessss_ deep beneath the Martian surface. Initial anal-nal-nalys_iiiissss_ showed that these crystals em_mmmiiii_itted energies of a nature similar to that of the extrasolar en-en-entity known variably as 'Moon X' or 'The Traveler.' Clovis Bray started the UAC project in order to study these crysta_aaaaallllsss_-" With a pop, the voice cut out.

"You mind translating for those of us that don't speak nerd?" Morgan asked.

Wahei gave him a look, then explained. "Seriously? You're the one who sticks around while I'm talking on one of my so-called 'rambles,' I would have expected you to have picked up _something_ after all this time!" She gestured at the terminal. "Bray was doing some preliminary scans for mining when they detected some crystals that were giving off an energy signature that suggested it was paracausal! There's only two known sources of paracausal energies-"

Morgan held up a hand to interrupt her, then turned to Rega-7. "You mind translating for those of us that don't speak Warlock?"

The Exo shrugged. "Bray found crystals that were emitting space magic. Which means it's either Traveler or it's Darkness." She looked around, "And given all the growth everywhere, I think it's safe to say that Bray found Hive crystals."

Vizier sounded intrigued by something, when the silver-shelled Ghost looked up. "Looks like this project was developing some new tech down here. Possibly some that we could weaponize."

Wahei nodded a bit. "So, our options are to either go find these possible new weapons, or we go full Wei Ning and go straight after the Hive."

Morgan and Rega shared a look. As one, they declared, "Weapons."

* * *

_**Stench. Filth. Spoor. Enemy.**_

_A lone Enemy leveled a boomer. A dash to the side. A leap upward. Hands gripped the crest of the Enemy. A knee lifted up and smashed through bone and muscle. The weapon boomed again into the floor. Concussive force and energy washed by harmlessly. The Enemy broke apart into death ash and wrecked armor._

_A door blocked the way. A kick failed to open it. Brows furrowed. No hinges visible. Another kick failed to open the door. Teeth bared. A panel glowed beside the door. A punch smashed it to pieces. A siren blared as the door slid open at last. A snort of annoyance._

_A swarm of thralls shrieked. Claws descended to rend flesh. Armor held. A fist grabbed an unlucky one. A swing scattered the rest away. A second swing snapped its spine. It gurgled as a third swing broke necks of its fellows. An elbow crushed another throat. One leapt up and wrapped arms around. Claws raked over a helmet. The broken thing in a hand was cast to the floor. A hand grabbed the thrall by the jaw. A swing over the shoulders and down to the floor. A boot stomped its skull into paste._

_**Thrall. Weak. Fodder. Feeble.**_

_These were new tunnels. But they were not made of stone. They showed signs of craftsmanship. Manufacture. None of it had the signs of the Enemy. Rubble was strewn about the floor. Screens on the walls were smashed. Grown over with Enemy spoor. Letters were painted on these walls. Arrows pointed the way to destinations. A grunt of decision._

_**Stretch. Clench. Ready. Hunt.**_

* * *

It was Wahei who called their advance to a halt. "These look like Hive tablets," she noted, indicating a stone wall. For all that Clovis Bray had properly kitted out the project space here, many corridors still had stone walls. Not all of them had been overgrown with Hive development, and the ice had not reached this far down. And this particular wall showed definite signs of having been carved and worked by hands. Hands that weren't human.

Rega-7 sighed. "Wahei, this is not the time for you to bone up on your Hive lore."

The Warlock, however, held up a hand and pointed at the tablets. "These are different. I've been to the Dreadnought probably more than anyone except the Hivebane. I can read Hive runes better than anyone living except for Eris Morn. And these tablets are covered in archival runes, just like the antechamber upstairs." She shook her head. "I didn't have a chance to read much of the ones upstairs, but these... these mention someone."

Morgan shrugged. "Again, we found Nokris' diary. Do we care? We need to track down the chain-witch."

Wahei ignored him, pulling out her journal and thumbed through it. "These tablets might be about her," she reminded him. "Let's see... 'First Age,' 'tainted beyond ascension...'"

"Sounds like Nokris," Rega mused. "He got kicked out by Oryx for heresy, didn't he?"

The Warlock nodded distractedly. "Not so sure this is talking about him, though." She tapped a line of runes, running her fingers down it. "'_In his ravenous hatred, he found no peace, and with boiling blood, he scoured the Ascendant Realms seeking vengeance against the sovereigns who had wronged him._'"

Morgan grunted. "Still sounds like Nokris."

"There's runes here that call this person the 'Unchained Predator.'" She glanced back. "Which might be why they have the Queen of Chains here, to try to keep whatever it is contained." She flipped to a blank page in her journal and started jotting down notes, sketching some of the runes as she went.

Their Titan groaned. "Well, that's just _great_. You called that ogre upstairs a 'baby abomination,' and now it turns out there might actually be a full-grown one down here?"

Vizier had been studying the runes along with her Guardian, then suddenly shined her light on one string. "Wahei! Look at this line! '_In his crusade, the Sky bestowed upon him terrible power and speed, and with his might, he crushed the dread totems of the Grave Temples._'" The Ghost looked down at the Warlock. "You realize what that could mean?"

The Awoken breathed out. "A Guardian." Turning to her comrades, she explained, "'The Sky' is what the Hive call the Light, or the Traveler."

Rega-7 blinked. "Wait. A Guardian? Sealed away down here? That's impossible."

"Why's it impossible?" Wahei spread her hands. "Guardians are immortal as long as they have their Ghosts. And even if their Ghosts die, the Guardian themselves still lives until something kills them. Eris Morn proved that. She spent centuries trapped in the Hellmouth before she managed to escape."

"Eh, not the best example." Morgan's face twisted into a grimace. "We don't know _what_ Eris had to do to survive down there. Not that I ever really want to find out."

"Er..." They turned to look at Vizier again. The Ghost contrived to look worried, insofar as a machine with no face could. "I just found another line here... '_They carved his name in the tablets of the Deep across eons, and each battle etched terror in the hearts of the Hive. They knew he would come, as he always had, as he always will, to feast on the worms of the wicked._'" Vizier made a gulping sound before continuing, "'_For he alone could draw strength from his fallen foes, and ever his power grew, swift and unrelenting._'"

"Ya see?" Morgan shook his head. "I'm not deep on Hive-lore like you, but even _I_ know that sounds like sword logic."

Rega peered at the slab thoughtfully. "If this Guardian or whoever he was grew so powerful, how did they manage to capture him?"

"The chain-witch," Morgan suggested. "You said there was probably a reason she was here."

Wahei pointed to another line, further down the slab. "Yeah, right here. '_Insatiable, he sought prey in the tombs of the Grave Keep. Blinded by his fervor, the lure drew him in._'" She ran her fingers down the runes, then tapped them. "Yeah, they collapsed the temple down on him, and sealed him away." She read further, "'_The mark of the Slayer was burned upon his crypt, a warning to all Hive that the terror within must not be freed. There he lies still, and ever more, in silent suffering_.'"

It was their Hunter who spoke next, after a thoughtful silence. "I think maybe we know why the Hive were drawing back into the complex." She looked at them. "They weren't running away from _us_. They were running to deal with the larger threat."

* * *

_Acolytes got in the way. Shredder bolts splashed off of armor. A fist crunched into the nearest's face. An elbow snapped an arm. Fingers dug into an acolyte's eye sockets. Tore the face clear off the head. The broken arm was torn off. Smashed into another's neck. A boot cracked a leg. The knee rose into and through a chest._

_**Acolyte. Cunning. Desperate. Pathetic.**_

_This room was contained. Still strewn with rubble and festooned with Enemy filth. There were remains here. Not of the Enemy. Bones and desiccated flesh partially buried in the muck. Ruined armor strapped to some of the bodies. Something else was there. Rusted metal and pitted material hewn into a familiar shape. _

_**Barrel. Handle. Trigger. Gun. Weapon.**_

_An examination proved it was broken. Little more than a weight. An Enemy roared. A sword swung and was evaded. The ruined gun was reversed in a fist. The handle hammered down into the knight's wrist. It crunched from the impact. It roared again and ate the butt of the gun as it smashed past teeth. Another smash and the knight's jaw came loose. A third smash blinded one of its eyes. It began to crumple away. The sword clattered to the ground. A fourth smash bent the knight backward. A glance showed the gun had shattered as well._

_It was thrown away. A punch smashed through the knight's chest. Fingers closed on the wriggling shape of its worm. It squirmed in an iron grip. It bit desperately at the fist as it was wrenched into the open. It was crushed with a shrill cry. A rush of satisfaction._

_**Knight. Warrior. Aggressive. Pitiful.**_

_There. A container, positioned vertically. What was the word. A locker. Trapped in Enemy spoor. Door stuck fast. The sword served a use. It pried open the locker. Within there were more weapons. In better condition than the other. These would suffice. Another knight charged in. The sword was thrown into its face. The knight fell with only one half of a head. Death-ash scattered across the floor._

_Weapons were examined. Most were in poor condition. A knife of considerable heft was found to still have an edge. A pistol was found of sufficient quality and condition. But all the rest were partially crushed beneath Enemy crystal growth, or corroded by the filth. Even a sturdy looking scattergun looked partially melted. The Enemy had wanted none of the prey here to arm themselves. A growl of frustration._

**_Fist. Knife. Gun. Enough._**

* * *

In the sacred penumbral depths of the Ascendant Plane, knelt within a circle of runes, Kateäk marshaled her words, her power, he will. As a member of a royal court, she was powerful enough to carve holes in reality and travel into these planes to commune with those above her. With a curl of claws, she sent her power and her will to call out to her Sovereign.

The plane around her changed, shifted. With one eye, the witch saw the cracked and shattered stones of a world torn asunder, littered with the broken refuse of what had once been. With a second eye, there was in the same space an expanse, akin to a vast chamber, lined with attendants and supplicants. With a third, there was a singular shape, behind which roiled the formlessness of the true Deep. The Queen of Chains saw which of these things were true and which were false, and also that they were all at once true and false.

She felt the pressure of a dreadful attention upon her. Kateäk had felt this before, many times, but even generations and aeons removed from such ancestry, the part of her that had evolved from the krill quailed in the gaze of the predator. And as she had done many times before, she lashed her fears in chains and dragged them away, lifting her gaze into the ruin/hall/abyss before her. _"__**He**__ is loose."_

There was a sound in the air- a shift of the rubble, or the stirring upon a distant high seat, or a breath in the depths. There were no words, but Kateäk heard the question regardless. The Sovereign above her demanded to know how such a thing was allowed to come to pass.

She bared her teeth, the hatred cold on her tongue. _"Lightborn. Guardians found the sepulcher. Their Light awoke him."_

Another sound. A rumble ahead of an avalanche. A clenching of thousands of fists. A suction on the edge of a singularity. The Sovereign expressed displeasure at the failure of the singular task to which she had been set.

She lowered her head in acknowledgment of her failure, but kept her gaze upon the impossibility of the ascendancy before her. _"He will not be allowed to escape the tombs. I know the dangers."_

Another sound. A susurration like serpents across stone. A muted chorus of chuckles. A tone like a string in high tension. The Sovereign was amused at how little she actually knew, of the danger of the Slayer's freedom, of the danger of the Slayer's wrath, of danger itself.

She opened her mouth to speak into the blessed darkness again, but there was a noise. The sundering of continents. The smack of a palm on the arm of a throne. The shrieking death of a star pulled into oblivion. The Sovereign ordered her silence.

Kateäk finally allowed her gaze to drop, feeling the krill-fear wriggling in its chains. To disobey those above her was beyond her ability. She would be fed to her worm and her worm would feed her Sovereign. There was nothing to do but wait the brief eternity while the one above her seethed.

At last, a response. A breeze through grave-grass. A murmur of the court. A whisper from the darkness. The Sovereign questioned whether the ritual spaces were still intact in the tombs. When Kateäk confirmed that they were, she then perceived a shifting. Shadows moving among the stones. Figures stepping from around a distant throne. Shapes emerging from the formless depths. Then, she saw the three champions stood before her, sheathed in adamantine armor. She knew them all. They had been present and helped lay the trap that had sealed the Slayer away.

She looked to the first, whose skull's crest stretched wide, whose claws gripped a cleaver sharpened in the heart of a dying sun. _"Üles Matu, Blade Unbreaking."_

She turned to the second, whose crest swept backward, then curled back around into two sharp points, whose palm rested on the butt of an axe. She had seen entire armies felled beneath its swing. _"Yaad Matu, Force Unyielding."_

She faced the third, who still bore the scars of the battle in ages past. His crest swept up into wicked horns, but one of these had been broken off. The cracks in his armor from the blows he had taken had been repaired, but the markings were still there. One eye burned dimmer than the others, and his fist clenched tighter on the boomer in his hand. _"Baalgar, Rage Unrelenting."_

The three champions all looked at her, then Üles Matu and Yaad Matu turned their gazes into the darkness beyond. Only Baalgar did not look round as sound came out again. A clattering of stones on cobble. A peal of gathered laughter. A scraping of a blade on a taut wire. The Sovereign anticipated amusement as she was ordered to bring the three champions to the mortal plane, to bring low the Slayer once again, and bind him again in darkness.

The Queen of Chains bowed before rising up into the air again. There was one final noise from the maelstrom. A hiss of the stalking serpent in the long grasses. A growl of the court's multitude. A gnashing of burning matter and stardust. The Sovereign added that she had best kill the Lightbearers too.

_"They will not be allowed to rise again."_

The storm of conflicting realities settled back into the cemetery realm of shadow. As one, the champions turned back to face her. Üles Matu saluted her with his sword before thrusting it into the ground and kneeling to her. _"My blade has served. It will continue to serve."_

Beside him, his brother Yaad Matu raised his axe in salute as well, before resting it down and kneeling as well. _"You shall have my axe, that it may crush those before you."_

And finally, the Rage Unrelenting stirred. Broken fangs snarled in anticipation as he raised his boomer to the shadows above, clasping a fist over his scarred chest. The ground shook slightly as the titanic champion Baalgar bent the knee. _"He shall not escape again."_

* * *

Afterword: To those hoping to see the Slayer run into the Guardians in this chapter, my apologies, but I need to build up to the moment, I think. I'll admit that when I first started putting down ideas for this almost a year ago, it had no direction to it. But I think I know where this story will go now. Stay tuned, constant readers!


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't want to spend days down here." Morgan peered over the railing and down into the space below.

The corridors had passed various offices and conference rooms, server clusters and workshops, but then had opened up into a multi-floor sort of atrium. There were many more corridors leading off of this, and there had been greenery in planters lining the railings and stationed at various balconies. Sunlamps still shone around the place, and it reminded him of the arcologies on the moon Titan. The greenery had overgrown, flourishing under the facility's automated climate control. Not helping the comparison to the arcologies was the Hive growth everywhere. There was a stench underneath the florid scents in the air, one which the air scrubbers couldn't quite get rid of. More screens flickered and popped beneath the vines, creepers, and root structures and annelid filth that covered every surface.

Rega-7 had climbed up atop a flickering light pole and perched there, sweeping her sniper rifle along the sight-lines. "Suck it up, Morgan. I don't want to hear about you and your nightmares again-"

"I'm not talking about nightmares," he cut her off. "But this complex is a lot bigger than we thought it was. Between the chain-witch, a lost Guardian, and a forgotten Bray lab, that's more than one fireteam should be responsible for. We should report this to the Vanguard."

"Uh-huh. Because the _last_ two times that we sent more than six Guardians into Hive spaces, it worked out so well."

Morgan harrumphed, but conceded the point. "Then we should probably prioritize taking out the Hive witch. Come back for the labs later."

Rega glanced down at him. "I don't want to leave a Guardian alone in the company of the Hive. After seeing what that did to Eris Morn, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"Eh, from what Wahei read off those tablets, I think he's probably sealed away by some Hive spell or something." He shrugged. "He'll probably keep." The silence that came from the Hunter drew out a sigh, and he added, "But if we come across him while we're hunting the witch, then we'll get him out, deal?"

"Deal." She thought for a moment. "Speaking of our Warlock, what's happening with those computers, Wahei?"

The Awoken lifted her head from the console she and her Ghost had found. "It took a while to get through all the corruption from the damage that's been done to the systems here over the centuries. The AI that ran the facility wasn't anything like as advanced as the Warmind, and being left operational for all that time while the decay and rot and overgrowth set in hasn't been good for it. Honestly, we're kind of lucky the poor thing hasn't gone rampant after all of this. I can't tell you the number of times I've come across old Golden Age complexes whose attendant AI systems have all gone loopy and crazy-"

Rega interrupted her with a throat-clearing sound. "Not the time, Wahei."

She shrugged. "Well, the AI here isn't crazy, but it's not that smart either. Can't tell if that's by design or by damage, but it's been hard trying to get data out of it. Vizier managed to get a map of the UAC Project facility downloaded, which should give us something to work with."

The Hunter glanced up from her rifle scope. "Hmm. No chance of some real-time motion tracker data or anything like that?"

Vizier swiveled back and forth in the air, the Ghost equivalent of a shake of the head. "Sorry, but no. We were lucky to get the map as it is." The green-shelled Ghost turned to the other two Ghosts in their party. "Chaukeedar, Eyeball, let's synch up, try doing a scan to track any Hive signatures." The three floated out into the open space of the atrium to do so.

As they did, Wahei came back over to Morgan, flipping through her Warlock journal as she did. "I've been trying to make sense of those tablets and the archival runes that I found. Vizier says she hasn't found anything in the World's Grave records about this 'Slayer' Guardian that was supposedly sealed away down here."

He shrugged. "Are you really surprised that anything from his disowned son's brood would be missing from Oryx's records? The Taken King was not a guy to do things by halves."

"That's just it," she tapped her stylus against her journal. "I'm not sure that Kateäk and the Hive here are from Nokris' Xol cult. For one thing, all of the Hive we've seen down here have lacked the ice crystals growing out of them that the ones nearer to the Braytech Futurescape have." Wahei frowned. "But the Queen of Chains is still an obscure enough figure in the World's Grave that I'm not even sure which Hive god she serves. And I'm still wondering why the Slayer wouldn't have been mentioned at all if he had done so much damage. Crota kept records of every civilization he slaughtered in his father's name, and Oryx catalogued every being that he encountered and every place he ever saw. And while I haven't had a chance to delve deep into what Hive records we have of them, which still isn't much, Xivu Arath keeps a tally of every enemy soldier her knights kill, and Savathûn would boast about her cunning and trickery, even if she was lying about it-"

"Not the time, Wahei." Rega-7 gestured with her sniper rifle. "Chaukeedar says there's an upsurge in Hive energies over in that direction. With the power levels he's seeing, it's gotta be the chain-witch."

Eyeball flew over to Morgan, adding, "That happens to be in the direction of the Applied Research labs. If Bray did weaponize anything the project here found, it'll probably be in there."

* * *

_**Move. Stalk. Search. Seek. Hunt.**_

_There was an Enemy near. There had been Enemies blocking the way. Pistol had been useful. But barely adequate. Acolytes raised their shredders. Pistol sounded, bullets chewed through armor. First went down, chitin clattering amid death ash. A shot took the second's head apart. Screamed in green flames as it died. Purple plasma splashed off armor. Charged through the smoke to grab third acolyte. Knife tore into its throat, ripping a hole open. Fist plunged down through it. Grabbed its worm, crushed it. Acolyte collapsed into death ash._

_**Scent. Stench. Ozone. Chanting. Witch.**_

_Lunged around a corner. Caught another acolyte by the throat. Knife plunged into abdomen, thorax, neck, skull. More started firing. Filling air with violet fire. Weaved through it. Shoulder checked one over a table. Flipped table on end. Kicked it into another. Saw the witch. The Witch. Same gnarled headdress. Same robes. Same chains. Same frigid fury. Heard her chant._

_**Memory. Ambush. Coffin. Chains. Revenge.**_

_Raised pistol. Squeezed trigger. A growl of aggravation. Saw the green flash of shields. Heard the shriek of thrall. Fell under their weight as they pounced. Felt fangs close over fingers. Ripped the jaw off of one. Tore another's limb off. Arm. Leg. Didn't matter. Flung the limb at charging knight. Rolled away from descending cleaver. Rose with an uppercut. Knight staggered. Pistol. Knight thrust the sword. Sidestepped and caught arm. Knife jabbed into wrist, elbow, armpit, neck. Knight bellowed. Hurled aside._

_**Stronger. Resilient. Challenge. **_**_Satisfaction. Adrenaline._**

_Took stock. Knife gone. Pistol not enough. Knight drew strength. Somewhere The Witch chanted louder. Saw portal forming. Something big coming. Must stop ritual. Must stop Witch. Must stop Enemy. Another locker nearby. Door ripped free. Flung at knight. Tore through filth. Found something._

_**Handle. Trigger. **_**_Barrels. _**_**Hammers. Shotgun.**_

_Knight was charging. Dodged past swing. Thumbed hammers. Click click. Boom boom. Knight staggered. Chitin jagged. Flesh missing. Spotted knife still in neck. Grabbed it. Ripped through throat. Tore head off shoulders. More thrall coming. Click click. Boom boom. Stench of death ash and cordite._

_**Scream. Crescendo.**__**Ritual. Witch. Champion.**_

_Rushed back toward The Witch. Grabbed robes. Ripped free as she glided back. Heard her curse. Saw her tear hole in world. Portal was active. Thumping of massive feet. Scarred and blackened armor. Abyssal Champion. Hateful scowl and missing horn. The Demon of the Deep. Rage Unrelenting._

_**Memory. Ambush. Battle. Stalemate. Vengeance.**_

_The Demon slammed a fist into the ground. Shockwave. Slammed into wall. The Witch floated out of reach. Began resuming her chant. Demon raised a boomer. A deafening blast. Disoriented. A bellow of challenge. More Enemies charged from portal. Spun away from another boomer charge. Thrall descended. Click click. Boom boom. Must keep moving._

_**Stop the Demon. Stop the Witch. Stop the Enemy.**_

* * *

They heard the battle before they saw it. The roars of a Hive Knight and the shrieks of thrall. Rega-7 dropped back and raised her sniper rifle as Morgan charged ahead. The Exo had to give him that much; for all that Morgan complained of going into Hive spaces and spoke of his nightmares, when the time came, he embodied the Titan spirit and rushed into the thick of it. Wahei was right beside him, but they both drew to a halt when they saw the barrier shimmer into being ahead of them. It was as if the air had turned into solidified smoke and fog, laced with spectral chains.

Morgan didn't bother to hide his curse as he looked at this. "Looks like the chain-witch doesn't want us interfering. Can you get the barrier down, Wahei?"

The Warlock nodded as she ran her eye along the runes that glowed on the links within the smoke-wall. "It'll take Vizier and I a minute or two." She turned and pointed. "Keep the Hive off me until then?"

"On it." Turning back around, Morgan saw that Rega had already dropped into a crouch to start picking off the approaching Hive forces. He walked up to her, then took a knee before willing a barricade into position. Hoisting up his chaingun, he bared his teeth behind his helmet. "Let's get down to Business, shall we?"

Rega just groaned at the pun.

* * *

Kateäk spared only a glance when she saw the Slayer land on the ledge to her left. She did not slow her chanting as she felt the blast of his shotgun strike her shield. She did not falter in the mustering of her will and power as Baalgar fired a charge at him, scorching away annelids and spoor. She wove her chains into the fabric of reality in front of her, pulling the threads apart to allow the portal to reach into the Ascendant Plane again.

In ages past, she had been able to summon as many abyssal champions as she needed. She had worked her magics against all those foolish enough to stand against the Hive. Binding away their power, imprisoning even the most powerful of opposition in oubliettes and tombs, that they might be bled slowly to feed their worms and fuel her power. Even binding away the tortured, monstrous abominations that the pits birthed, their titanic fury helpless against her chains.

And then the Slayer had come. Much had changed since then.

She could feel the Force Unyielding pacing on the other side of the portal. He was eager to join the battle, to drive his axe into the Slayer's heart. Only a few moments more. She formed the last few syllables and was able to speak them when the Slayer landed beside one of the crystals that bracketed the portal. She saw his helmet turn and look at it, then at the portal, then at her.

When he grabbed the crystal, she hissed with fury, and with a swipe of her hands, cut the spell's weaving short. The sickly green light of the portal dimmed, and she heard Yaad Matu's furious roar echo from the Ascendant Plane. Kateäk drew her power in, smelting a piece of chain with a spell, then sent it hurtling toward the Slayer, who was attempting to wrench the crystal from the intangible chains that held it in place.

At the same moment the spell reached the Slayer, Baalgar fired at him again. The combination of rotting star-matter and smoldering necrotic chain triggered an explosion. It launched the Slayer into the air, and took the crystal with him. He clutched it in one hand as he soared across the chamber. Baalgar tracked him and leveled his boomer again, but as the Rage Unrelenting fired again, the Slayer hurled the crystal into the blast. Kateäk's eyes widened.

_"NO!"_

* * *

A knight staggered back as the knife stuck in an eye, then crumpled as Rega's submachine gun chewed through the rest of its skull. She slipped under a thrall's flying tackle, catching its ankle and flipping it on top of an acolyte as she leapt back behind the barricade to reload. Beside her, Morgan's chaingun screamed as its barrels spun and its bullets mowed down the unending tide of thrall scrabbling toward them. "What's happening with the barrier, Wahei?" she called out as she hurled a grenade into the throng.

"It's not something as simple as the wards we've seen under Olympus Descent or on the Titan arcologies," the Warlock responded. "This is a ward put together by a Hive royal, and one who specializes in this sort of thing! This isn't like picking a lock with a rake and hook or with a multi-tool. This is like trying to pick a lock, when pieces of the tumbler are in another dimension, but not necessarily one that's adjacent to this one, when the pins reconfigure themselves when you're not looking and sometimes even when you are, and the cylinder is rotating even when you're not trying to turn it, and even this metaphor isn't accurate because it's not actually like a lock at all-"

"Not the time, Wahei!"

She huffed with annoyance. "I'm working on it! It's not like we can brute force this thing."

The entire facility shook as the explosion went off. They could hear the thunderous cracks of stone and permacrete breaking under the blast. The floor under their feet rocked and shifted, but finally held and did not drop from underneath them. Both Dark-servants and Lightbearers turned toward the eldritch barrier, which flickered. The spectral chains shattered and faded, and took the solidified fog and shadow with it. The Hive roared in fury, but Rega-7 took advantage of the momentary lull to leap into the air, pulling the Solar fire around herself, flinging out a barrage of flaming knives that scythed through the majority of their forces.

The few surviving knights and acolytes growled, but withdrew before fading back out of the mortal realm. Morgan slapped a fresh drum of ammunition into his chaingun as he turned back toward Wahei. She stood back as the last of the barrier faded from sight, then got her auto rifle ready. Eyeball glanced at Morgan. "I'm picking up a big Hive signature in there, but it's not the same as Kateäk's."

They advanced, and Rega swore as she saw the enormous Hive knight. Its size and the blackened armor alone told her enough. Abyssal Champions were some of the toughest Hive they'd ever encountered. It frequently took a full fireteam at least to defeat just one of them. And this was one of the largest she'd ever seen, the boomer on its arm was as tall as she was, and its roars and bellows spoke of a rage she'd not seen out of anything in all her many lives. Beside her, she heard Morgan's dismayed intake of breath, and Wahei's awed curse. The only saving grace was that they had its blind side.

The Abyssal stumbled as they watched, however, and turned slowly around. Void energies steamed off of the cracked armor, one eye had been gouged out of its skull, and one horn had been broken off of its crest. Rega saw the knight's remaining eyes focus on them, saw its broken fangs snarl, and it started to raise its boomer. As one, all three Guardians drew their heavy weapons and started to raise them.

Then the blur lunged off of a ledge within the room and slammed into the back of the Abyssal's neck. The colossal knight roared as it dropped to a knee, stopping its fall with its free hand. The boomer lifted backward, firing blindly, shaking the room as the blasts detonated off of the shattered Hive portal that dominated one wall. A figure climbed up into view as it grabbed the Abyssal's remaining horn and wrenched its head to one side. The knight tried to swing its weapon toward the attacker, who kicked out to deflect it away, then drew out a weapon of its own. The attacker thrust this against the back of the knight's head and pulled the trigger.

The blast from the double-barreled shotgun in the attacker's hand blew off a chunk of the Abyssal's jaw. The monster's body spasmed once before it began to go limp. Its limbs went boneless as it slumped onto its belly, The attacker released his grip on the knight's horn as he reloaded his shotgun, then drew the hammers back as he pushed the knight's head back with one boot, thrust the gun under its jaw and pulled the trigger again. Meaty chunks of the knight's face came away and it finally went still.

The man now turned to regard them. Even underneath the heavy green plate armor, his figure was packed with muscle, and he was probably the largest man they'd ever seen. Rega-7 could hear the wooden handle of the shotgun creak from the pressure of his grip. The visor of his helmet obscured his features, only suggesting the barest hint of his features behind it. She could see the furrow his brow, however, and combined with the subtle but unmistakable tension around him, it did not take a mind reader to pick up on the fury in his soul.

Looking a bit closer, she saw the strange red marking on the brow of the helmet, just above his visor. It almost looked like a stylized sword, thrust downward, with another line slashed diagonally across it, and another line notched in beside the 'sword,' near where the 'slash' crossed it. Sparing a glance toward her partners, Rega could see Wahei looking at it, then meeting her gaze before giving her a slow, single nod.

The Slayer stood before them.

* * *

Afterword: I'm trying to pace myself with this one, so as not to get too ahead of myself, though I do have an ending plotted out. Also trying to find the right balance between the segments of each chapter, between Guardians, Slayer, and the Hive. I appreciate all the feedback and follows I've gotten so far, and hope you all enjoy this as it continues.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Flash. Noise. Pain.**_

_Everything was blinding. Everything was deafening. Everything was agony._

_Head was full of light. Head was full of sound. Head was full of aches. _

_Nerves burned. Bones shook. Muscle screamed._

_**Stop. Think. Focus.**_

_Remembered. Had found ritual place. Seen the Witch summon the Demon. Ripped through the Witch's retainers. Tore through the Demon's squires. Couldn't penetrate the Witch's shield. Stayed ahead of the Demon's cannon fire. Saw the crystals powering the portal. Idea formed._

_Grabbed the crystal. Leapt clear as Demon attacked. Hurled the crystal into cannon. Demon fired. Everything was noise. Heard Witch shriek. Heard Demon roar. Heard Force Unyielding bellow beyond portal. Enemy around them disintegrated._

_**Get up. Blood up. Eyes up.**_

_Witch was gone. Not dead. Escaped like the Witch always did. Demon was injured, stunned, staggering away, blinded. Leapt onto Demon's back, kicked through armor. Demon fired its boomer, nowhere close. Grabbed its horn, fingers crunching into chitin. Kicked away boomer, drew shotgun. Click click. Boom boom._

_Demon slumped. Knew it was still alive. Sensed its worm chewing at it. Pushed its head back. Click click. Boom boom. Demon went limp. Drew in breath, leaving the Champion to die. Felt the aches, blindness, deafness fade. Breathed out the pain. Turned and saw the people. Sized them up._

_**Enemy? Targets? Strangers.**_

_Male of broad build. Dark crimson heavy armor with pauldrons. Scarred in the face. Loincloth of colored strips hanging off belt. Pouches of ammunition. Breathed in his measure. Scent of ozone, worthiness, but undercurrent of unease. One who dislikes the Enemy. But not the raw hatred needed._

_**Strength. **__**Resolve. Soldier.**_

_Woman with purple skin. Swathed in robes with amulets and beads. Luminous eyes that read with long experience. A waxen charm hanging from a belt. Beside this, a leather-bound journal. Breathed in her measure. Scent of oblivion, curiosity, but tinged with grim knowledge. One who knows the Enemy. But lacks the knowing of the logic._

_**Studious. Analytical. Scholar.**_

_Person made of metal. Draped in a mottled cloak and leather armor. Head with actual face, numeral emblazoned on forehead. Knives stashed about their body. Orienteering tools on wrist. Breathed in their measure. Scent of embers, determination, but undercurrent of annoyance. One who hunts the Enemy. But not out of raw need._

_**Standalone. Farseeing. Scout.**_

_Soldier, scholar, scout were examining him in turn. Attire stained with dust, grime, muck. Smeared with death-ash. Killers of the Enemy. Stunk of it. Good at killing the Enemy. Saw scholar and scout look at one another. Scholar nodded. Three started chattering. Ignored them, turned and regarded halls and chambers beyond them. Sensed something. Aimed shotgun. Drones beside each of them. Monocular shapes, speaking animatedly. Looked at them again. Breathed in the three again. Tasted their Power._

_**Weapons. Armor. Power. Lightbearers.**_

* * *

"Aren't you going to say something?"

Rega-7 shot Wahei a look. The Warlock hadn't taken her eyes off the Slayer after the initial exchange of a nod. Then again, neither had she. Despite the fact- indeed, _because_ of the fact- that the figure before them had near-effortlessly taken down an Abyssal Champion with what amounted to a flying tackle and a sawed-off shotgun, something about the giant unsettled her. Something beyond the rage that emanated from him.

"Seriously? You're the one who knows who this guy is." Rega kept her submachine gun ready, but lowered. She instinctively knew that aiming a weapon at the giant would go very poorly. "You're the one who likes to talk."

"You're both supposing that he even speaks our language." They both turned to Morgan, who had his own shotgun out at this point. The Titan shrugged at them. "You're also supposing the guy's human. If we just found out about this guy from a bunch of ancient Hive tablets, then he could predate even the Golden Age. By a long way." He rolled his eyes at their expressions. "Oh, wait, sorry. Me am Titan, dummy speaky, no understand, me am only kill."

Wahei looked abashed. "Fair point. I should have considered that." She acknowledged his reasoning, and turned back to Rega. "But now I'm sort of left wondering how to respond to this. I mean, he's a Guardian, or something like it, right?"

Vizier decloaked beside her. "I'm not so sure if he's a Guardian, exactly," the Ghost murmured. "The Light readings I'm picking up from him are unlike anything I've ever seen."

"I've seen some things like it," Eyeball muttered as he appeared next to Morgan. "Like with the creepy guy with the weird tanks down in the Tower Annex."

"Or those Thorn-wielders," Chaukeedar added, popping up beside Rega. "It's Light, but it's not the purest."

But the Guardians barely paid attention, because the sudden appearance of the Ghosts had caused the giant before them to suddenly raise the gun in his hand. It happened so quickly, if he'd pulled the trigger, they would never have been able to stop him. All three of them snapped their own weapons up in return, as their Ghosts quickly ducked out of view.

Rega watched the Slayer as his chest rose and fell in one deep breath. The visor of his helmet gave her no real indication to his expression, but she could just make out a slight furrowing of the brow. His head turned as he looked from the cringing shapes of their Ghosts, to the Guardians. Slowly, he lowered his gun, and after a moment, so did they.

Then the Slayer abruptly marched past them, turning his head again as he took in the surrounding decay of the Bray facility, and Rega heard him breathe in again. He went to a railing and looked down into the atrium, then up toward the cavernous roof, and one foot kicked away a fragment of Hive chitin.

"I think he's looking for more Hive to kill," Vizier whispered.

Wahei nods. "That makes sense. If the tablets were right, his dedication to killing Hive was why they dubbed him 'The Slayer.'"

Morgan watched the giant warily for a few moments as he marched past them again, back into the room with the now-broken portal. "Eyeball, you had a good read on the signatures of the Hive Champions down here, yeah?"

His Ghost's black-in-white shell swiveled toward him. "Yes. No more Abyssals at the moment, but still some other powerful ones."

Rega frowned. "What about Kateäk?"

The mention of the Queen of Chains caused the Slayer to stop in his search of the Hive chamber. He swung back to them and stomped through the muck on the floor, approaching the Hunter. She held her ground and held up a hand. "Easy there, big guy." He stared down at her, and without breaking the stare-down, she hissed to Wahei. "So he understands the chain-witch's name."

Eyeball opened his shell and pulsed the Light in the atrium again. "Her energy signature is faint, but still somewhere around here. She might have escaped to the Ascendant Plane." The Ghost swiveled and indicated a direction. "But there's another big one this way."

Vizier added, "Applied Research is that way."

Rega nodded and looked up at the giant. "You want to kill Hive?" She raised her gun, without aiming at him, and then indicated the dead Abyssal. The Slayer stared at her, but she saw the slight turn of the head within his helmet as he glanced at it. Then he raised his shotgun with a ponderous nod. Rega jerked her thumb in the direction the Ghosts had indicated. "This way. Big Hive. Maybe even new guns. Come with us?" Again, the Slayer stared at her, and there was the movement of his head in his helmet as he evidently looked in that direction. Then he nodded again.

* * *

The scream echoed across the Ascendant Plane. Kateäk's robes smoldered, her headdress cracked and smoking, and she felt her worm writhe in agony. She had been a fraction of a second too late to completely avoid the explosion of Baalgar's Boomer and Void crystal. But the pain was endurable. She was Ascendant, so it would take more than a mere blast like that to end her. But the pain was excruciating, above the mere agony of stepping into the unfit reality that the Deep sought to unmake. It was the Slayer's Light doing it, she realized, twisting the energies of the Void and of the Deep against her.

Yaad Matu growled at her as she dragged her claws through the soil beneath her. _"You weren't fast enough,"_ the Force Unyielding declared. _"If you hadn't stopped the ritual to summon me, we would have killed the Slayer. Instead, you were weak, and now the Deep is less a Champion-"_

The chain speared out and through his neck armor, wrapping around his throat. He staggered back, grabbing at the links, then raising his axe, but another chain lashed out and snared his wrist, pulling his arm to the side. Within moments, all of his limbs were splayed out and he was lifted into the air by spectral links. Kateäk lifted her head and glowered at him. _"Know your place, Yaad Matu. I am not some fresh-spawned wizard who speaks carelessly, who weaves without understanding. I am Ascendant. I am a Queen. So mind your tongue, lest I tear it from your maw and feed it to my worm." _She flung him away, hurling him deeper into the Ascendant Plane. _"Begone from my sight, until I have need of you."_

She felt the plane twist around her suddenly, and fell into a pose of supplication. Only a being of greater power than herself could twist reality here, which meant it must have been her Sovereign. But when she lifted her gaze, she froze. Instead of the ruins/throne/abyss, it was something else. With one eye, it was a chamber of study, musty and littered with scrolls and tools. With another, it was a ritual space, redolent with the effusion of death, festooned with the blades of the trade. With the third, it was the formless shape of the true Deep. But in all three places, there was a Sovereign.

No. Not a Sovereign. A Prince.

His face was twisted into a smile and he slowly brought his hands together, clapping slowly. _"Honored, Tem Tak."_ She narrowed her eyes as he spoke her spawn name, discarded in ages past when she chose her god. But he continued, _"Honored, Te Akka."_ Again, her eyes narrowed as he used her wizard name, long disused since her growth in power. And finally, he bowed his head, but with a tone of mockery to it, as he used her ascended name. _"Honored, Kateäk."_

She sent one of her chains lashing toward him, but he lazily caught it with one hand, then plunged it down onto the altar, pinning it in place with a knife. He reached out to catch another, and this was pinned to the table in the study. Then he plucked a third from nowhere, without her even trying to attack him, and wound this around a sphere of nothingness in the Deep. It left her pulled in three different realities, and she screamed again from it as the Prince floated over toward her.

_"Know your place, Te Akka." _His voice was the scratch of a quill through her flesh, the scrape of a knife scraping across her bones, the hiss of dying atoms in an accretion disk. _"I am not some scrabbling thrall who charges without worry, who claws without thinking. I am no mere Ascendant, grown fat with tribute. I am the child of a Sovereign. So remember this, or I will peel your chains from your body and flay your soul to the smallest iota, and leave you to drift in the Deep until the end of all things."_

She pried his claws from her face. _"Blasphemous traitor! The King Your Father cast you out!"_ He tightened his grip on her, and she cried out as her chains were pulled taut.

_"Expected to wither and die, shunned by His gods, bereft of tribute,"_ the Prince agreed. He abruptly released her, and with a casual flick of his fingers, her chains were freed. _"Be still, O Queen of Chains. I am not here to seek some pointless vengeance against my Aunts. I am here to lend my aid."_

She went still for a moment, eyes narrowed. _"Why should I accept your aid? Why should I risk defying my Sovereign for even speaking with you?"_

_"Do you think that the Slayer will care that I am an outcast?"_ The Prince shook his head. _"It will kill every Enemy he perceives. Me and what remains of my Hive included, since the Lightbearers slaughtered their way through them en masse."_

He floated back from her and gestured to the altar. There upon it now was the corpse of Baalgar. _"I was there when the Rage Unrelenting burned the fleets of the Heliophiles of Baldu, when he crushed the Baldurite Arch-Hierophant in his fist. To lose such a Champion of the Deep is a blow to your Sovereign."_ The Prince gestured in the air, ethereal threads strung between his claws. _"But he need not stay dead."_

Kateäk considered this. _"To bring back a Champion such as Baalgar would violate the edicts of my Sovereign. And he fell so easily to the Slayer's might."_

The Prince chuckled. _"There is more than one way my arts work. And there are ways to strengthen him."_ He turned from the altar into the study and picked up a long spike. It gleamed with a dark necrotic sheen over the tarnished silver metal, and the blunt end glowed with poisonous yellow light. Kateäk stared at it, sensing the power that emanated from it.

_"The King Your Father forbade the usage of an Argent Nail."_ Her voice was flat as she glared at it. _"Stealing tribute and accumulating it without sending it up the Great Chain to the Sovereigns is-"_

_"I have heard it all before," _the Prince snapped. _"And when you've already committed one sin against kings and gods, what is one more?"_ He held the Nail up. _"With this, not only can I resurrect an Abyssal Champion, but I can enhance their power by an order of magnitude."_

_"And warp them into something that is _given_ its power rather than _taking _it,"_ she spat. _"Twisting them and replacing their flesh with metal and wire. Anything that must rely on external assistance does not deserve existence. That is the logic of the sword, O Exiled Prince."_

_"If it means stopping the Slayer from its unstoppable path of annihilation of our people," _he retorted, _"then it is worth doing. Any of the Sovereigns would agree with that. None of Them wanted to spend the tribute necessary to charge a Nail the last time the Slayer marched. This is why They failed to kill it, and why you have been stuck on that wretched world, endlessly working to keep it chained away in your Oubliette."_

She finally turned away. _"I will not condone this. I _cannot_ condone this."_

He simply nodded as he drifted about the shapeless singularity of the Deep, beginning his spell's weaving. _"I would not expect otherwise of one bound by the same chains she commands."_

She glanced back as she prepared to leave his aspects of the Ascendant Plane. _"But I will not stop you." _When he cocked an eye toward her, she continued, _"As you said, if it stops the Slayer, then it is worth trying."_

As she departed, the Prince drove the Nail deep into the chest of Baalgar, drifting back as metal armor plates began to form from the point of impact. The titanic body of the Champion shuddered, arching off of the altar, and its eyes snapped open.

The roar echoed across the Ascendant Realm.

* * *

"Here we are," Eyeball said as they came up on the archway. The Ghost turned to the Guardians. "Applied Research. There's a big Hive energy signature this way." The Guardians considered the heavy bunker doors that blocked the way. Eyeball continued, while beginning to hack into the lock console, "Lot of smaller Hive signatures, too, so might want to get ready."

Morgan stashed his shotgun and hauled out his chaingun, doing some perfunctory checks that it wasn't jammed and that its magazine was topped off. As he did so, he noticed the Slayer was looking toward him. No, that wasn't right. The Slayer was looking at his weapon. Morgan held it up and gave the barrels a quick spin. "Like it? Call it the-"

Abruptly, and without speaking, the Slayer plucked it from his hands and lifted it up, inspecting it more closely. He gave the barrels a quick spin, then hefted it and appeared to be aiming down the way they'd come. Finally, the giant gave a grunt and a nod. Morgan held out his hands expectantly, but the Slayer just turned and marched up to the archway, where Eyeball was at work. With one hand, he shoved the Ghost out of the way, then pulled out a knife. He used this to pry the lock console's panel open, before ripping it open with one hand. Then he plunged his fist into the components behind it, tearing entire handfuls out.

An alarm blared for a moment before hidden speakers warbled and popped. The tenor voice of the UAC Project AI spoke brightly. "Door me-mec-mechan_iiiii_sm malfun-fun-fun-function, sa-sa-safegu_aaaarrr_ds activating-ing-ing." The doors slowly trundled open, as the voice continued, "Please repor-por-por-port m_aaaallllfff_unction to maintenan-an-an-ance as _ssssooooooonnn_ as convenient."

"You'd think that breaking the mechanism would actually make it _harder_ to open the door," Rega-7 mused as they waited. "It's where Bray's mad scientists were working, after all."

Wahei explained, "Actually, that's a safety feature. So that people don't get trapped somewhere in the event of an emergency. Plus, when this facility was fully operational, they would have had security on hand to restrict access in the case of a stuck-open door, plus on-call maintenance support. And also, I don't know if 'mad scientists' is the right term for it. 'Mad' implies outright insanity, and even at their worst, Clovis Bray would have balked at giving clearance to- much less hiring- people with psychological disorders of that type, so really the best term for them would be something like 'amoral'-"

"Not the time, Wahei."

The Warlock frowned slightly, and looked about to summarize her point (and she was ninety percent certain she had one) when she glanced at the Slayer. She'd picked up a lot of restless energy from him as they'd made their way over to Applied Research. Just in the few moments they'd been standing in front of the door, when he wasn't swiping Morgan's chaingun, he'd been sweeping his gaze from side to side, checking all of the angles, looking for threats. But now, he had gone still, his helmeted visage turning to look at the door. She saw his chest rise and fall as he took a deep breath, raising the chaingun to aim at the space at the door.

"Eyes up, Guardians!" Wahei called out, lifting her scout rifle, moments before the shrieks of thralls and howls of acolytes came echoing out toward them.

* * *

_**Move. Search. Hunt.**_

_Lightbearers were hunting the Enemy. Could tell this was the case. Hunting the Witch. Heard Witch's Name from scout's mouth. Scout had spoken. Deciphered her meaning- Wanted to kill Enemy. Enemy Champion this way. Had followed Lightbearers through ruined bunkers. Stench of Enemy everywhere, but stale. Stink of death and filth._

_**Death. Destruction. Always.**_

_Stopped before doors. One of the drones chattered, fiddled with lock. Lightbearers began checking weapons. Scanned their choices. Scout with rapid-fire gun, sniper rifle, narrow sword on belt. Scholar with rifle, hand cannon, grenade launcher. Soldier with shotgun, rocket launcher, and minigun. Last one caught eye. Soldier showed it off. Snatched it from his grip. Inspected it. Found it suitable._

_**Stalling. Impatient. Enough.**_

_Drone was taking too long opening door. Shoved it aside, pried panel open. Ripped it from archway. Tore out internals. Doors started opening. Voice stuttered nonsense. Ignored it. Doors were opening. That was enough. Scout and scholar spoke among themselves. Scholar kept chattering on. Was about to glare at her. Scout got her to be quiet. Stoked the rage, took a breath._

_**Scent. Stench. Fresh. Enemy.**_

_Tide of thrall and acolytes rushed out. Raised minigun. Bullets tore through the Enemy. Advanced slowly while holding down trigger. Lightbearers fired from behind, cutting down acolytes. Knights charged forth, boomers thundering, swords swinging. Dashed past a sword, caught knight by throat. Drew shotgun. Click click. Boom boom. Turned to next knight, but soldier slammed shoulder into it with crack of lightning. Turned to next, but scholar appeared from nowhere, slapped glowing palm into its face. Turned to another, but scout plunged her sword through its face._

_**Power. Force. Light.**_

_Last knight blasted scout with boomer. Soldier and scholar turned on it with guns. Knight staggered back, threw up shield. Caught knight by crest, wrenched it back. Ripped knife through its throat. Tore its head from its body. Stomped it to paste. Enemy were depleted, in retreat. Looked to scout's body. Took in breath. Knew she was dead. Drone flitted to her, opened its eye. Felt the Light flow. Scout sat up._

_**Not dead. Resurrection. Impossible.**_

* * *

Morgan reloaded his shotgun as he replayed what had just happened in his head.

The doors had opened and let out a horde of Hive, and instantly, the Slayer was firing his minigun. Whatever the giant was, his aim was true, as the bullets all ripped through the thrall and tore the acolytes down. Morgan and the other Guardians quickly started firing as well, to wear down the forces behind those. When the knights had emerged, the Slayer had moved with impossible speed for someone so massive, closing with the nearest sword-bearer and drawing out the sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, blowing a hole through the knight.

Morgan had charged in behind him, intercepting the knight that had been aiming its boomer at the giant. Drawing the Arc around him, he'd slammed into the knight and knocked it to the floor amid sparkling death-ash. Wahei had Blinked into the face of the next and slapped it with a grenade, blowing its top half off. Then Rega had unsheathed her katana before burying it in another sword-bearer's maw. That last knight had blasted her at near-point blank range. They'd gunned it down enough for the Slayer to rip its head off. And then the Hive were vanishing from the mortal realm.

Neither Wahei or Morgan were worried overmuch about Rega, but he'd seen the Slayer looking down at her body. It was difficult to read the giant's expression through that faceplate, but there was almost a bit of regret in the man's frame. "Eyeball," Morgan looked at the Slayer, who was still holding his minigun, "can you rez me up an auto-rifle?"

"Got a preference?" his Ghost asked.

"My Breakneck should be fine." He sighed a bit as he looked at his gun again. "I don't think the Big Guy is going to give that one back."

Then Chaukeedar was helping revive Rega-7, who sat up with the usual gasp of a freshly-rezzed Guardian. She shook her head as she got to her feet. "I'm getting sloppy. Should have swung that guy around to use as a meat-shield."

The Slayer was staring at her still, and had actually taken a step back to see her resurrection. Morgan could see the tension in the giant's muscles, and a glance at Wahei showed that their Warlock had picked up on it as well. Rega looked at her teammates, momentarily perplexed, before she looked up at the Slayer and realized. "...first time seeing a Guardian rez?" she asked, kicking her katana up into her hand before taking out a cloth to wipe Hive ichor from the blade.

The Slayer stepped toward her, looming over her for a moment. Both Titan and Warlock slowly raised their weapons, but Rega raised a hand to them without looking away from him. The Slayer took another one of those deep breaths, and she could have sworn she saw the shape of his eyes narrow beneath his faceplate. He lifted a hand and poked at her body in the ribs, approximately where she'd been hit by the boomer. She held still as he looked from her to the nervous shape of her Ghost.

Vizier flitted into the anteroom from one of the open labs. "Hey, guys, I found something!" This broke the tension in the air, as the Slayer turned his head to look at the other Ghost, glanced at Rega, then stepped away from her and toward the room where Wahei's Ghost had disappeared. The Guardians shared a look, the unspoken agreement that there had almost been a fight just there.

In the lab, Vizier was scanning a computer bank, while the Slayer was eyeballing a large device that was supported over an equally large workbench. The Guardians spaced themselves around it as well. It was a weapon of some kind, as there was a long handled grip attached to the back end, and a secondary grip further up the belly. From the top of the weapon, there was a slowly spinning cylinder, in which they could see a green-glowing crystal. Similar glows lit up tubes and panels on the sides of the weapon.

Vizier spoke up again as the Ghost extracted information from the computers. "Let's see... the UAC Project designed this based off of materials found in the mines... so much of this is all redacted. They don't know what kind of energy the crystal puts off, but it's power, in joules, is..." Vizier blinked. "That's a lot of zeroes." The Ghost continued, "Since they couldn't really classify the energy type, they just called it the 'Blast Force Generator.'"

"Whatever they called it," Morgan drawled, "that is one big fucking gun." He then cleared his throat before declaring, "Dibs!"

"Er, no," Wahei interrupted. "My Ghost is the one who found it, so it's mine."

"I don't trust our resident scatterbrained Warlock with it," Rega-7 shook her head, "and, Morgan, you're so twitchy I'd be worried you'd blast us with it by mistake. So I'm taking it."

The Slayer just ignored them all, reaching out and taking the massive gun from its stand. He looked it over, then pressed a few controls on it, until the crystal cylinder spun up, the glow becoming brighter as the generator primed itself. His helmeted face turned toward them and leveled the weapon at them.

The Guardians considered, then raised their hands. "Sure, you can have it." "All yours, Big Guy." "Keep it, honestly, we don't need it."

* * *

Afterword: Really glad to see how this story took off! It's fast become my most popular piece on both FF Dot Net and AO3, and has even gotten some good traction on r/DestinyJournals. This chapter took a little more time than usual, part because I needed to string some story beats together so I could get it in the direction it needs to go, and part due to some RL concerns. (A flooded basement shifts your priorities around.) But I know how this story will end. Goal is to get it done before Shadowkeep drops, as that will consume a lot of my time. Stay tuned!


	5. Chapter 5

Narvok knew his life was forfeit.

For ages, he had served his Queen, his Sovereign, the Hive, his Worm, and the Deep as a Warden of the Oubliette. Before that, he had fought across the worlds and the ascendant planes against the Sky-blessed and those who rejected the purity of the Logic. He had sharpened his sword on the bones of nations and his worm had fed well. He and his swarm-brethren had led their legions against the Slayer in that horrible slaughter, before his Queen had lured it into the trap. Only Narvok and two of his swarm-brothers had survived that day, and they had volunteered their blades to guard the Oubliette.

And now he was the only one left. Lorzûl had been standing watch over the Sarcophagus when the Light had corroded the bindings around it. The Slayer had ripped his arm off and torn his jaw from his skull. Hormalx had been among the first responders when the alarm had been raised, and by the time he reached the escapee, the Slayer beat him to death before tearing his worm straight out of him. As the last of the Wardens, Narvok had one task left before him, and that was to try to stop the Unchained Predator.

Before charging forth into his doom, however, Narvok and his legion prayed to their Sovereign, to their Worm, and to the sacred Deep, honing their swords, charging their weapons, and steeling their wills before the clash to come. Above the altar, his consort Nar Eiru chanted and led the prayer, but their song faltered when the air twisted before them, and their Queen appeared before them.

Narvok and Nar Eiru both bowed their heads and made obeisance to her, but Kateäk motioned them to rise. _"We have little time,"_ the Queen of Chains declared. _"The Slayer and the Lightborn are on their way. I must prepare another ritual space and bring forth the Force Unyielding."_

The last Warden of the Oubliette shouldered his sword as he clasped his fist over his chestplate. _"My blade has served. It will continue to serve. My legion and my brood are yours to command, my Queen."_

Beside him, his consort spread her fingers and bowed her head. _"My mind sees into Deep places, and my gaze is sharp. My arts and my knowledge are at your disposal, my Queen."_

Kateäk's gnarled crest turned toward them, and she showed her teeth, her eyes burning cold. _"An appropriate word, young one. I need time to summon forth an Abyssal Champion. All you can give me. They are still in the Bray labs, seeking treasures and weapons. They will soon detect my presence and move to stop me. Nar Eiru, Narvok, you are to take your brood and slow their advance._"

Narvok knew his life was forfeit.

They had moved further into Applied Research. Rega-7 knew that in ages past, there had likely been far more projects and artifacts being worked upon here by Clovis Bray's researchers. With every bank of computers they passed, she heard Wahei making upset noises, as the Warlock wanted to linger, to search these systems for their knowledge. But the Hunter and Morgan both reminded her that their priority was taking out Kateäk. Coming back with a cryptarch and a team of Warlocks to plunder more of Bray's secrets could wait until later.

Rega had wanted to simply head back out of Applied Research and continue deeper into the UAC Project facility in pursuit of their quarry, but Morgan's Ghost still insisted there was a strong Hive signal nearby. Even if it wasn't the chain-witch, none of the Guardians wanted to leave a Hive leader at their backs. Even the restless bulk of the Slayer seemed drawn further in, his fists clenching on the grips of his new weapon.

She considered him again. In spite of her Exo optics, she could not see clearly past the visor of his helmet, and could only make out vague features. A strong brow throwing his eyes into shadow, the slope of a nose, and little else. That much spoke to a human, or humanlike, species, but if Wahei was right, then he'd been locked away down here since long, long before the Traveler ever heard humanity's roar in the cosmos. His armor covered up everything else about him, but even with its heavy plating, she knew that he was every bit as muscular as the armor implied. The way he'd been able to knock down that Abyssal Knight and pin it down spoke to his strength.

He was also a lot faster than his size would suggest. Someone as big and as heavy as he was shouldn't be able to move as quickly as he did. She couldn't quite stifle her amusement as she pondered him loose in the Crucible. Rega must have chuckled, because Morgan turned to her. "What's got you laughing over there, Rega?"

"Just imagining." Rega gestured at the Slayer, who was kicking a piece of rubble out of the way ahead. "Can you think of what'll happen if we turn him loose in the Crucible?"

Wahei looked up at this, her eyes going distant for a moment, and then a smile crossed her face. "Oh. Ohhh, I want to see him wipe the smugness of Raayi's face." The Awoken archer was a frequent rival to the Warlock in the times they'd crossed paths. The Hunter Raayi Enne was fast enough that she could keep ahead of Wahei, even when the Voidwalker was in mid-Warp, and more than once she'd shut her down with an arrow through an eye socket.

"I think Shaxx would nut himself," Morgan was grinning as well.

Rega nodded. "Could probably earn quite a bit of silver wagering on it, too," she mused. She looked to the Slayer, who had paused as he came to a larger chamber, one that seemed to be a large circular testing bay. A series of articulated and extendable arms protruded and hung from the ceiling, and other machines were set into tracks in the floor. The centerpoint of the chamber was a yellow-green crystal, suspended in a gravity field of some kind. The stand underneath it, however, had become covered in Hive growth, and annelid lengths inside this started to move as they approached.

"You know," Wahei commented, on seeing it, "the more I think about it, the more I'm wondering if Nokris and his cult didn't have a secondary goal in coming to Mars back during the Collapse. I mean, yeah, trying to capture or destroy the Warmind would have crippled our ability to fight off the Darkness, but given these other Hive were here, I'm wondering if he wasn't trying to capture the Slayer for some reason. From what records I was able to find under Hellas Basin suggest that Nokris was a scholar and strategist, so having alternate motives for his actions would-"

She stopped when the Slayer turned to her, his movement sharp, and punctuated with an annoyed grunt. Rega quietly made a throat-clearing sound and advised, "Not the time, Wahei."

Then she noticed the Slayer turn back to regard the testing chamber they stood in. His head turned to take in the surroundings, and then he seemed to stare at the Hive crystal in the center of the room. His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath, and then he visibly tensed. Somewhere close, a howl started up, and the Slayer swung immediately toward another door leading out of the chamber.

"Eyes up, Guardians!" Rega-7 called out as she got her submachine gun out. Morgan posted up by the door getting his shotgun out, just as a Hive knight charged in, shield before him. As the Titan aimed his weapon, the Slayer hefted the 'Blast Force Generator' and clicked the trigger.

The world went _green_ and _bright_ and _pain_.

* * *

_**Hunt. Stalk. Search.**_

_Enemy had retreated. Lightbearers could resurrect. An impossibility that was true. Scout had restored to life after being killed by knight. Took a breath and studied her. Not of flesh and bone, but still alive. Not dead, but not merely sustained by the Light. Touched the place where knight's shot had struck her. No sign scout had been injured. Not merely resurrected, but completely restored. _

_**Alive. Dead. Alive again.**_

_Looked to scout's drone. It was flitting nervously. Source of scout's Light? It did not merely smell of Light, but stank of it. All the Lightbearers' drones did. Drones somehow brought dead Lightbearers back to life again. Bore thinking of. Glanced over as scholar's drone chattered. Lightbearers followed it to room. Banks of machinery. Workbench with a large weapon. Crystal inside weapon. Stench of Deep clung to it. Lightbearers and drones chattered about it. Argued over who it belonged to._

_**Big. Fucking. Gun. Mine.**_

_Picked it up. Studied it for a few moments. Turned it on. Aimed it at them. Lightbearers agreed to give it to him. Stalked after stench of Enemy. Witch was somewhere. She deserved a final death. Lightbearers chattered as they searched. Found a chamber. A laboratory of some kind. Enemy crystal on pedestal. Someone had been studying it, looking to harness its energies. Behind, the scholar was jabbering on, filling the air with noise. Glared her into silence._

_**Stop. Listen. Scent. Howl.**_

_Enemy was coming. A horde of them, with a shield-knight leading the charge. Tides of thrall and acolytes. Behind them, an elder knight. No, more than that. Scented it before. While locked in casket as ages passed. One of the Wardens. Lightbearers readied for battle. Lifted big fucking gun. Clicked trigger._

_**Green. Bright. Death.**_

* * *

The knight leading the charge let out a bellow as the blast struck its shield. Only _struck_ wasn't quite the right word, since it implied that the shield was able to catch and absorb the energies involved. It burned it away in less than the blink of an eye, and only Rega's Exo optics really allowed her to play back what happened. After the shield went, the blast vaporized away the calcified chitin of the knight's arm, and then its chest and head, leaving a glimpse of a silhouette in the blinding green flash. She saw the knight's worm suspended in the air for but an instant before it, too, was boiled to nothingness by the Slayer's new weapon.

The tide of thrall and swarm of acolytes behind the knight did not fare any better. The blast continued to rip through the entire mass of them, burning them away in searing green heat, leaving only scraps of bone and twitching limbs. Near to the back of the horde was a larger knight, its armor more ornate than others, and it had enough time to leap aside, so the blast only scorched its back, and it quickly summoned up a shield in front of it to deflect the last of the dispersing energies, then retreated back down a filth-lined tunnel.

Rega and Wahei were spared the worst of it, standing to the sides and behind the Slayer. Wahei let out a cry of pain, her robes catching fire from the intensity of the blast force. Rega's Exo systems all started reporting dangerous levels of energy, and her optic receptors shorted out several times while she tried to squint against the flash. Morgan, standing beside the door, was not so lucky. He let out a scream of his own, cooking alive inside of his armor, and even his Light couldn't stand up to the energies surging past him. The dark crimson patches of his armor were scorched black and his Titan mark crumbled into ash, before his armor suddenly collapsed to the ground, the body within reduced to cinders.

The Slayer shouldered his weapon and regarded the lower half of the first knight, its legs still standing, and one fist having fallen to the floor, still clutching its sword. Then he looked at the pile of wrecked armor that had been Titan Morgan, before turning to look at Rega, who stared in horror at it. She quickly looked around. "Ghosts, check in! Chaukeedar?"

"Here!" her Ghost poked into view from behind her.

She looked over to Wahei. "Vizier?"

The Warlock's Ghost peeked up from behind the Awoken. "Present!"

"Eyeball?"

Rega let out a sigh of relief when the Titan's Ghost turned up from behind a piece of machinery in the chamber. "Still alive!" The black-in-white Ghost spun its shell facets, as if it were shuddering. "I saw the Big Guy lift that gun, and I got the heck out of the way."

She glanced at the aforementioned 'Big Guy,' who looked from the Titan's ashes over to Rega and Eyeball. He watched as the latter zipped over to the scorched armor, shell opening to channel the Light. With a shimmer and a flash, the scorched armor vanished, and then Morgan was standing there, letting out a loud groan of pain as he braced himself against the wall. He removed his helmet, bent over, and dry-heaved for a few moments. He spat on the floor, then took a moment to gather himself before declaring, "That... was the single most painful experience in all my lives."

Wahei tilted her head. "What about riding your Sparrow through that milkfall on Nessus-"

Morgan cut her off. "Worse."

Rega blinked. "When we fought Urrox in the Prison of Elders, he set you on-"

"_Worse_," Morgan snapped. He stormed over to the Slayer, who regarded him with the same blank stoicism as ever. "What the _fuck_, man?!" He pointed at the BFG. "That's Braytech, and you don't just go around using Braytech without _warning_ someone! That's how SIVA went crazy, that's why Rasputin's a rogue, rampant Warmind, and you just up and fired off a weapon with output measured in _zetta_joules _while I was in the line of fire!_" He punctuated this last by punching the giant across the jaw.

The Slayer rocked back from the blow, then turned back to Morgan. Once again, only Rega's Exo optics allowed her to replay what had happened so she could follow it. The giant stowed the huge gun on his back, his left fist coming up with an uppercut that shattered Morgan's jaw. She could see teeth flying from his mouth as he left his feet from the blow, but a split second later, the Slayer kicked out with one foot, rocketing Morgan back against the wall, which shook and cracked from the impact. The Titan barely had a moment to look up before the Slayer was already on him again with a right hook that reduced his face to pulp.

Eyeball made a startled squeaking noise, and darted back as the Slayer snapped his head around to look at the Ghost. Before anything else happened, however, Wahei Blinked in front of him, tagging him with a grenade before Blinking back out of his sweeping grab. Rega jumped back out of range as well as the Slayer looked down at it before it detonated, filling the room with a burst of Void energy. The Warlock glared. "Don't hurt my friends!"

When the flash and smoke faded, the Slayer was on his back, but was already sitting back up. The giant's armor had cracked and split, though Rega couldn't see what lay beneath it for the smoke coming off of him. His limbs twitched, and then he sat up. With a grunt, the Slayer got back to his feet, looking around for Wahei.

But Rega stepped into view and raised both hands, empty. "Easy there, Big Guy. You really want to keep doing this?" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder toward Morgan, who had already been restored to full health by Eyeball. The Titan stood up, shoving his helmet into place and meaningfully racking a round into his shotgun. Rega continued, "You're tough, okay, sure, but we can keep getting up, and no matter how tough you are, we _can_ and _will_ find a way to put you down for good if you push it."

She still wasn't sure if the Slayer understood her at all, as the giant simply stared down at her. Even without seeing his face, she could feel the intensity of his glare. But he wasn't attacking, and that was a plus. She nodded, then pointed to what remnants of the Hive had survived the BFG's firing. "Hive. Enemy, yeah? Let's focus on killing _them_, instead of each other."

"Oh, we can spare a few minutes for me to put this asshole on the ground a few times," Morgan growled.

"_Leave it_, Morgan," Rega-7 snapped. "We get out of here, you two can go up to Shaxx, and let him put you two in the Crucible to work out your issues, okay?!" She did not take her eyes off the Slayer, who had looked at the Titan as threats were spat around. Now, however, he looked back to her, and she nodded again. "Kill Hive. Not us. Okay?"

The Slayer's eyes seemed to narrow behind his helmet, but then he nodded slowly. He looked at Morgan, then turned away, almost dismissively, as he approached the chamber's floating crystal. The giant considered it for a moment, then his head lowered a bit as he touched the cracks and scarring left in his armor by Wahei's grenade. He looked from this, to the crystal, then reached out to grab it with one huge hand. He examined it briefly before his fingers tightened around it. Rega heard the crystal cracking, before it shattered like glass, releasing a pulse of energy that stirred her cloak.

As she watched, the armor seemed to knit itself back together, leaving just a gunmetal gray marking on the heavy plate to indicate it had ever been damaged. And even this seemed to be slowly regaining the green shade. The Slayer took a deep breath as he rotated his shoulders, stretching them out, and the Guardians could hear the popping of joints as he did so. With another deep inhalation through his nose, the Slayer turned back to them, nodded once, then marched off through the door where he'd gunned down the Hive.

The Guardians watched his departing back for a moment, and Rega cut Morgan off from following for a moment. "Morgan, _leave it_. I know you want to give him a receipt for a double down, but we have a Hive Royal to track down. We RTD her, we get out of here, and then I'll let you two apes go at it all you want. But I need to know that you're-"

"I'm good," the Titan grunted. "If I can tolerate having to go on patrols with that mouthy prick Charlie Tango, I can put up with going worm-hunting with the Big Guy there."

"You sure you're okay, Morgan?" Wahei asked.

"Compared to having a pub-clearer with Sergei?" Morgan felt at his jaw a bit. "I'm fine."

"I meant after taking that blast point-blank," the Warlock explained. "I mean, I didn't see a whole lot of what happened, I went blind from the flash, but seeing what happened to you, it looked like the energies involved made you cook from the inside out. It couldn't have felt good to feel your bones going white-hot and immolating your flesh inside your armor-"

Rega-7 slapped her upside the head. "Not the time, Wahei!"

The Warlock looked abashed, but Morgan just grunted again. "It didn't feel great. But I'm fine now. Now let's go find the chain-witch."

* * *

Nar Eiru could feel the eagerness of her consort's forces as they charged forth to stop the Lightbearers. Though she was not Ascendant, she had risen in power enough to know that in the next age, she could rise to those hallowed ranks. Provided, of course, she survived the impending encounter with the Unchained Predator. Many of her sisters and cousins had perished in the last great conflict with the Slayer. She had worked alongside the Queen of Chains to help construct the Sarcophagus that had contained the monster. Once he had been sealed away, however, the question was where to put him.

This backwater system had been chosen. Nar Eiru did not know her Queen's reasons for this. She suspected there was a wellspring of Deep energies somewhere close. If this was true, then her Queen was not telling her where it was. It couldn't be on this barren world. Nar Eiru would have sensed it. But being stuck down here for so long, even with Deep magics being employed to sink them into a hibernating torpor, had caused their power to slowly fade and dwindle. This had likely contributed to the bindings weakening over the Sarcophagus.

And if that hadn't, then the Sky-Traveler's arrival in the system certainly had. Oh, how she had ached to fly to the surface of this deserted world when it came here, and seek to siphon away its power to feed her worm. She knew Narvok had thirsted for it, as had all of the Wardens. But Kateäk had forbade it. Even when the fleshy pink bipeds had begun to dig into the buried exterior of their prison, they had stayed where they were. And as the humans had studied the crystals they'd found, the Chained Swarm had learned of them as well. If the Bray-folk had penetrated into the prison itself, they would have been killed to a man, of course, but Kateäk had counseled patience.

Nar Eiru shook herself from her reverie as she felt an agony tingle through her senses. It was a phantom sensation, the ghost of her consort's pain. She hissed the rest of her coven, lesser witches all of them, into preparation, then flew toward the tunnels leading upward. She drew up short as Narvok staggered back into the chamber. The Warden's armor smoldered, and as he caught himself from falling by bracing himself with his sword, she saw his back had been left exposed, the bone armor missing in a great smoking patch, the flesh beneath was blistered and scarred from an intense heat. One half of his crest had been partially melted away, and the bone armor on that side had a similarly solidified-molten look to it.

She drew in a breath to see it. _"Narvok, what has-"_

_"The Slayer has some terrible new weapon," _he growled. _"From the Bray labs. A span of platoons, annihilated in an instant. Worse than any Light-born sorcery. Deep protect me, if I'd been an instant slower, I'd have been vaporized with the rest of them."_

Nar Eiru touched a claw to the melted bone, then hissed in astonishment. _"They used the Deep's power. The Bray found a way to harness the Deep?!"_

_"They took crystals from the exterior of our caves."_ He shook his head, hauling himself to his feet. _"Sovereigns only know what they learned from them."_ Narvok took a breath, then spat on the floor. _"I must gather more forces to give our Queen more time."_

She nodded. _"My coven and I will prepare traps to slow the Slayer's advance. Nothing like our Queen's, but it should be enough. Must be enough."_

* * *

The tunnel where the commanding Knight had retreated collapsed behind it. But with the Ghosts' help, the Guardians were led through side rooms and eventually into a much larger workshop. There were several workbenches scattered about, and much had been destroyed in the intervening centuries, with Hive growth and pods on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. The Slayer marched into the middle of the room, looking around for something to kill. The Guardians, meanwhile, spread out a bit, and it was Morgan that called Wahei over to one workbench.

"This whole facility's basically got a mine attached to it, yeah?" The Titan indicated the tool on the table. "So why's there a chainsaw down here?"

The Warlock simply nodded. "You would think that wouldn't make sense, but there's still a use for chainsaws in a mine. If the blades are made of the right material, they can cut through stone." She peered at the one on the bench. "This one looks like it's-" She looked closer. "I think the edges are actually made of those crystals."

Morgan grunted, but left it where it was. He glanced up as Rega leapt up to an overlooking balcony and started scanning sightlines with her sniper rifle. "Eyeball, how close are we to the Hive signature you were tracking? I know it's not the chain-witch, but the sooner we deal with this big one, the sooner we can get after her."

"Should be close," his Ghost replied. "Signal's strong." Eyeball paused and the Ghost swiveled his shell's facets. "What's the Big Guy doing?"

He looked. The Slayer was approaching a waist-high pillar of Hive growth. Embedded in the top was a Hive crystal not unlike the one they'd found near the Blast Force Generator. He was looking at it speculatively, but Morgan's eye caught a few signals. He glanced quickly to Wahei, who shared his expression, and both were moving toward him, just as Rega called out, "Hive trap! Detainment field! Look out!"

They weren't fast enough to stop the Slayer from touching the crystal. There was a flash of light, and spectral chains swirled up in a circle in the area around the pedestal. The air seemed to turn to solidified smoke within the trapped area. The Slayer rocked back from this and swung around to look at the chains. At the same moment, Hive runes began to glow on the walls of the workshop, and a howl started up as Hive began pouring into the room. High above, a witch floated, encased in a shimmering shield, and chanted, weaving a spell, swaying out of the path of one of Rega-7's sniper shots.

"Wahei, try to get the Big Guy out of there," Morgan shouted as he flung a pulse grenade toward the nearest pack of thrall rushing toward him. He opened up with his auto-rifle into the ones behind, and squinted as he spotted a larger knight with scarred armor. "Rega, big one in the back!"

"I see him," the Hunter replied. "Looks like the one who got away earlier. This wizard's making it hard to get a shot on him. And she's shielded. My sniper's not getting through."

"On it!" Wahei pulled out her grenade launcher and fired a few explosives toward the hovering witch, who shrieked and had to retreat from the area. That done, she turned back to the Slayer, who seemed to be glaring at the departing witch. As Rega started firing at the commanding knight, the Warlock worked to unravel the spell trapping the giant.

-which turned out to be irrelevant moments later. The Slayer clenched one massive fist and punched one of the chains. Wahei stepped back as the energy field surrounding him seemed to ripple. He peered at this, then turned and grabbed the crystal at the center of the trap. He ripped it from its mooring and then crushed it in his fist. She could see energy course up his arm, and then he punched the trap again. The energies burst loose and the spectral chains shattered.

The Slayer unslung the BFG from his back and leveled it toward the hordes of Hive combatants rushing toward Morgan. Wahei called out, "Big Guy firing the big one!" Morgan cursed and shouldered his way past a pack of acolytes, but when the Slayer pulled the trigger, the weapon failed to fire. Wahei looked at it. "Er... never mind, it's still recharging!"

With a grunt, the Slayer slung it back across his back and pulled out the minigun. Bullets chewed through thrall and acolytes and lesser knights. Rega-7 kept trying to line up the headshot on the elder knight with the half-melted armor. "Looks like the big one back there's being tagged in the files I got from Vizier," Chaukeedar muttered to her. "Narvok, Warden of the Oubliette. And that witch is Nar Eiru, Keeper of the Oubliette."

"Doesn't matter what they call themselves, they're gonna die," the Hunter replied. "But they're being damned evasive."

Between Morgan and the Slayer, most of the lesser Hive were dead or fleeing. Narvok roared and raised his sword in the air, which called forth another wave of his followers. Wahei was picking off ones on the periphery with her scout rifle, until there was the high screech of a Hive witch. With a twist of the air, Kateäk materialized and flung molten links of chain down upon the battlefield, forming a ritual circle. This began to glow and a Hive portal opened within. From her perch, Rega-7 saw a blackened shape stirring, and then climbing out of the hole.

"Eyes up, Guardians! Abyssal Champion incoming!" The Exo fired a round at the Queen of Chains, who swatted the shot out of the air with a sweep of her claws. The Slayer turned to see the darkblade rising to its full height, and he started to reach for the BFG again. At that moment, however, a pair of lesser knights rushed the giant. The Slayer snap-drew the sawn-off shotgun and blew the first's head off, then grabbed its sword to stab the other through the chest. It slumped forward, but before the Slayer could shove the carcass away, Narvok closed the gap and chopped down with his own sword.

The Slayer was able to lunge his body out of the way of the force of the blow, but it still slammed the dead knight down atop him, driving him onto his back. Rather than go for another blow, however, the Warden of the Oubliette leaned down with all his weight onto the pile, turning his head to regard the towering form of the Force Unyielding. Yaad Matu ignored the sniper shots that peppered his adamantine armor as he hefted his axe and swung it down toward the pinned form of the Slayer.

* * *

Afterword: Sorry for the delay, Guardians and Space Marines! Welcome to all the new followers. I'm always grateful to see that my writing is getting appreciated. In answer to one question I got in an FF Dot Net review, yes, "Click click. Boom boom" is a reference to Miracle of Sound's "Hell to Pay" song.

Obviously, _Shadowkeep_ has consumed a lot of time as of late. I won't deny it's giving me some ideas, especially as more Hive lore is revealed. Sorry also for a cliffhanger, but it was coming up on what I generally consider a good length, and already had some decent content. Next time, we'll see our Guardians and the Slayer take on an Abyssal Champion (maybe two), and we'll see what else the Hive are planning to try to stop them.


	6. Chapter 6

Narvok knew his life was forfeit.

The Slayer's horrific new weapon had left him scarred and part-maimed. His vision was blurred in one eye. Every move of his right arm sent agony through his body. His worm writhed deep within, gnawing on him, sensing the weakness from the glancing blow he'd received. His bone armor, melted and seared onto his flesh, scraped against itself, creaking and limiting his movement. Should he survive the confrontation with the Slayer and the Lightborn, he knew that his worm would consume him, or his Queen would sacrifice him that she might empower a new Warden for a new Oubliette. Thus it had been, when he'd first accepted his duty as Warden. His lot was to contain the threat of the Unchained Predator.

Narvok knew his life was forfeit.

The trap had been sprung. The Slayer had been drawn in by the crystal, triggering the snare. Nar Eiru had suggested it, a dutiful pupil of their Queen as she was. A double snare, the first layer trapped the Slayer within the detainment field, flooding the air around him with poison. The second layer locked away the room, sealing the exits from any bearing the Light, and restricting their access to it. That would limit the Lightborn's ability to combat them. He commanded his legion from the rear, exhorting them to attack the intruders, even as his Queen arrived and began the end phase of her ritual. He could feel the shift in reality as she summoned forth the Force Unyielding. As powerful as Yaad Matu was, the Warden knew he had to take any action he could to slow down the Guardians, especially when he saw the Slayer rip the trap crystal from its mooring and tear his way out of the snare.

Narvok knew his life was forfeit.

He saw the Slayer draw out his terrible weapon, but felt the twinge of hope as it failed to fire. He sent his legion to engage with the abomination, but the Slayer cut down two of his best knights. But then the latter of the two knights sank forward onto the sword, and Narvok saw his opening. He closed the gap and swung his sword down, even as he knew the Slayer was too fast to be caught by it. While the Slayer avoided the direct force of the blow, it forced the dead body of the knight atop him, pinning him long enough for Yaad Matu to approach. The Force Unyielding would not check his swing if another Hive was in its path. The Warden understood and accepted this.

Narvok knew his life was forfeit.

But then the Slayer's arm punched through the body of the knight pinning him. The shotgun in his hand blew a hole through Narvok's knee. The Warden could not stop the bellow of agony coming from his throat, could not stop the physics pulling him down and into the path of Yaad Matu's axe. The weight of the body atop the Slayer shifted, and he ripped his arm free of the body and tore himself out from underneath it, rolling aside as the axe fell. Narvok, last Warden of the Oubliette, was crushed beneath the descending blade.

For Narvok's life was forfeit.

* * *

Rega-7 cursed as Hive adherents began peppering her perch with plasma fire. Not helping was the fact that the chain-witch was bombarding her with molten slag. She flung a grenade toward Kateäk before leaping from her balcony, lunging across the open air before springing off the air toward one of the adherents. The Hive shooter aimed its weapon at her, but she came down on it with her katana, plunging it through its face. She tore the sword free from it and sent its carcass tumbling to the floor below. Kateäk was shrieking with rage as she beat the flames out of the air from the grenade, but Rega instead aimed her sniper rifle and picked off the other adherents.

A glance at the floor below showed her that Wahei was Blinking around, shooting down acolytes with her scout rifle and hand cannon, using the power of the Void to suck the energy from thralls and fling grenades toward the Abyssal as it stomped toward the Slayer. But the Champion barely registered her attacks as it hefted its axe in preparation for its attack. "Morgan!" Rega called out as she leapt down to the floor. "We gotta get the Big Guy outta there!"

"Workin' on it!" The Titan blew a knight's arm off with his shotgun and hurled another pulse grenade toward a cluster of acolytes. He ducked under another sword swing, grabbing that knight's arm and hurl it over his shoulder to the floor before pumping another shotgun blast into its face. Getting a moment to orient himself, he saw the Slayer dislodge Narvok and roll to try to avoid the Abyssal's axe. Morgan drew in his Light, and there was a crack of thunder as the Arc burst outward from around him as he launched himself threw the air.

The Abyssal glowered down at the crushed, bisected form of Narvok, but he turned as Morgan hurtled toward him. Yaad Matu rocked back as the Titan's fist crashed into his chest, lightning coursing over the enormous Champion. With a bellow of rage, the Abyssal grabbed Morgan by the leg and flung him away. _"You will not best me, Lightborn! Entire worlds have fallen beneath my blade!"_ The Champion swung his axe horizontally, forcing the Slayer to leap away from the blade. _"I am the Force Unyielding. My worm will feast on your Light!"_

Morgan slammed through several workbenches before he slid to a halt. His leg was crushed and he couldn't move his arms, but with a flash of purple Light, Wahei appeared next to him, casting a healing rift around them. She peppered the Abyssal's helmet with scout rifle fire. "Can't get anything through this thing's armor," the Warlock mused thoughtfully. "Maybe if we all dunked our Light on it at once, but you just blew that with that Thundercrash, and the wards up around this place are restricting access to the Light. Big Guy's new toy might work, if it could just recharge faster. If we had some Hive crystals to use against them, that might work-"

"Not the time, Wahei!" Rega landed by the Slayer, who had gotten back to his feet. The giant glanced briefly at her before snapping his sawed-off up and blasting the head off an acolyte who had rushed up behind her. She, in turn, flung a knife into the eyes of a knight behind him, then spun around to fire her SMG into a swarm of thrall.

Both she and the Slayer dove aside as the Abyssal's axe came smashing down again. The floor bucked from the force of impact, then was shredded as the Force Unyielding twisted the blade to one side and dragged it through the deck plating after the Slayer. The giant pulled out his chaingun as he turned and tried to jump off the flat of the axe. The Abyssal, however, snapped the weapon upward, catapulting the Slayer backward. Even despite this, the giant still trained the chaingun on the titanic Champion, who barely noticed the bullets impacting across his armor.

Wahei moved aside as the Slayer came past, but as the big man got up from his landing, he had to leap backwards again as Kateäk above flung another lump of molten chain at him. He hit the workbench behind him, turning as he heard something clatter to the ground. The Warlock, meanwhile, was frowning as her scout rifle failed to penetrate either the Abyssal's armor, or the witch's shield. She pulled the Light of the Void around her-

-and screamed as chains lashed out and pulled her taut, limbs stretched out from her body. Above, Kateäk hissed a spell, and Wahei felt fresh agony as the links binding her began to smolder, draining her Light. Rega's katana slashed out, but the blade rung in her hand as its edge was blunted against the necrotic chains. Morgan attempted to grab the chains, gritting his teeth against the burning pain of touching the evil bindings, but his strength could not budge them.

The air split with a hellish shrieking buzz, and there was the Slayer, having hefted up the fallen chainsaw. The blades spun and he brought it down through Kateäk's links. They snapped and dropped away, and above the Queen of Chains screamed with rage. The other set of chains released Wahei, who collapsed and clutched her arms close to her chest as she waited for her Light to recover. The Slayer glanced at her, but then turned to look up at the approaching bulk of the Abyssal.

The Slayer turned to her, and Rega nodded once. "Morgan, rockets!" The Exo's tone told him enough to not question it. He pulled up his rocket launcher, snap-aimed it at the Abyssal, and fired. The launcher roared like a bellowing giant, and it caused the towering Darkblade to pause briefly without stagger. It did, however, give Rega-7 enough time to fling two handfuls of burning knives into its face. While they failed to penetrate its helmet, it blinded it for long enough for the Slayer to close the gap.

The chainsaw shrieked again as the Slayer swung it into the Champion's knee. The adamantine armor, which had allowed the Abyssal to stand amid the searing bones of dying worlds without injury, ripped apart against the crystalline blades of the buzzing tool. Armor parted, and then so did flesh and bone and sinew. The Abyssal fell to one knee with a roar, planting the shaft of its axe to try to heave itself back upright.

Morgan slotted a fresh rocket into his launcher. "Well, it's hurt, but even a maimed Hive Champion can be lethal, and we've still got the chain-witch hanging around-"

"Like affects like." He turned to Wahei, who was still cradling her injured arms. "The saw's blades are edged in Hive crystal. That's how it was able to cut through the armor."

The Titan nodded. "Rega, keep our Warlock safe, I got a plan!"

The Exo goggled at him. "You _what_?!"

But he just called out, "Eyes _down_!" A flashbang exploded in the air, and both Abyssal and Hive witch hissed with pain, hands lifting to shield their eyes. Below, the Slayer leapt backwards to avoid a blind sweep of the axe, and Morgan dashed over toward the crumpled form of Narvok. He heaved the Warden's sword out from underneath the body, turning to the Abyssal. The Champion was lurching because of the crippled leg, but was still strong enough to swing its axe one-handed. It came down toward the Slayer, who again leapt aside to avoid the blow.

Then Morgan was there. He chopped down with the Hive sword, striking down at the shaft of the axe. The crack of its shattering echoed in the chamber, and the sudden absence of the blade's weight on the end of the weapon caused the Abyssal to stagger to the side, unbalanced. The Slayer immediately came around again with the chainsaw, tearing through the Champion's other knee.

Above, Kateäk screamed in rage again and began to weave a spell, but had to shrink back as Rega took up Wahei's grenade launcher and began filling the air around her with explosions. The Queen of Chains hissed a curse before twisting in the air and vanishing back into the Ascendant Plane. Below, Yaad Matu had fallen to his knees, and tried to raise an arm to block Morgan's next chop, but was too slow. The Titan's blow cracked the Darkblade's helmet, splitting it open, and then the Slayer plunged the chainsaw through the crack. The noise it made was horrible, bones and metal crunching and shredding apart. With one last howl, the Force Unyielding finally fell.

There were only a handful of lesser Hive still present, and with their Queen's withdrawal and the Champion's demise, they quickly retreated from the area. Morgan hefted the sword up onto his shoulder and frowned as the Slayer tore the chainsaw free of the Abyssal's skull, but then started stomping on what remained of the monster's head. Bone and gristle crunched under the heavy boots, leaving behind effluent and blood. Even as bone shards were crushed into powder, leaving little more to kick, the Slayer kept going, and finally the Titan stepped in. He laid one hand on the giant's chest and gave a faint push. "I don't think he's gettin' back up, Big Guy." The Slayer looked up with a sharp grunt, then glanced at the carcass of the Abyssal. He gave it one last kick before stepping back.

Rega-7 racked a fresh round into her sniper rifle. "Next time you have a plan, Morgan, it'd be a good idea to share it with everyone first."

"Yes, because the chain-witch was totally going to let us stop to strategize."

Wahei smiled to herself. "If you're going to get angry at someone, Rega, get angry at me. I figured out the weakness in the Abyssal's armor, and I knew that Morgan would figure it out if I gave enough of a hint."

The Titan nodded, but changed the subject. "How're you doing after chain thing? Just tying to pull them off you left my hands burnt. And that was just a couple seconds for me."

She flexed her fingers, then hissed in pain. "Light's still restricted down here. Give me half an hour, I should be able to handle a gun again."

Rega-7 shook her head. "I'm thinking I'm agreeing with you now, Morgan. We should get back to the Tower and regroup, maybe get some backup before we come back to kill the chain-witch-"

But the Slayer was moving. He stood over the broken pedestal where the trap crystal had been embedded and took a deep breath. Then he swiveled about and started marching toward the Hive tunnels, still carrying the chainsaw, sticky with Hive gore and bone-gristle. He kicked some rubble out of the way, then kept moving. The Guardians all shared a look.

Rega sighed. "-or maybe we go make sure the Big Guy doesn't get in over his head."

* * *

Üles Matu, the Blade Unbreaking, knelt on the shores of the hallowed sea of the Ascendant Plane. The cleaver which gave him his name rested across his palms as he bowed his crest to the Deep. He had taken up the blade ages ago, when first elevated beyond mere thrallhood, after marching against the Daa'nii and burning their blasphemous libraries and drowning one of their High Scribes in his own ink vat. He had breathed deep of the smoke from the smoldering ruins and his worm had been fed well that day. He had taken his blade and gone against prey after prey. When he campaigned against the empire of the Surihaa, cutting through their ships and skewering their generals, he had charged his sword in the heart of their dying star while the Choir of the Damned sang the end to their homeworld. And from there, he had been allowed into these Ascendant Realms, so that he might then wage war against the proud Korstovani warriors, not only slaughtering them on the battlefield, but marching on their afterlife realm, where he'd butchered their gods.

In his ages of warfare, Üles Matu had taken his blows, and while his armor had grown powerfully resistant, it bore the scars of his battles. But his sword, after countless duels, had never been notched, had never failed him, nor his Sovereign. He and his brother and their brood-kin Baalgar had been among the many Champions named and sent to stop the Slayer's inexorable conquest, but only the three of them had survived the massacre that ensued.

The sound of chains lifted his head from his supplication, and he turned to look at Kateäk. She said nothing, but he saw the curl of her claws and the hiss of her breath, and he knew. _"My brother is dead."_ It was not a question.

_"As ever, the Lightborn complicate things." _The Queen of Chains stared into the Deep. _"More and more, I am uncertain if we can contain him this time."_

Üles Matu nodded, gripping his sword and planting it in the soil as he rose to his feet. _"Containment has never worked against him. Baalgar had always stated we should kill him, as had my brother and I. Something like the Predator cannot be contained forever."_

She snarled. _"You dare question me, Mat Kos?"_

_"Yes,"_ the Blade Unbreaking did not falter as he met her gaze, nor show any fury at the usage of his spawn name. _"Your plans have failed so far. You brought us to the prison individually, instead of as one. Had the three of us been there at once, we might have been able to overcome the Lightborn and... _contain_ him. Instead, now two Champions are dead and the Slayer is growing stronger. Why you persist in trying to _contain_ that which cannot be contained boggles even the Sovereigns."_

He did not look away as she glared at him, nor as he felt the distant throne's eye fall upon the shores of the depths, or the hungry grasp of the Deep focus on him. As Kateäk dropped into a bow, he did not look away, though he did bend the knee and bow his head as he felt the gaze of a dreadful attention. The Queen of Chains whispered a hurried apology on his behalf, but Üles Matu shook his head, interrupting, _"Do not speak for me. I do not apologize for questioning whether she is capable of the task ahead of her. I do not apologize for questioning whether he can be contained."_

There was a silence, but for the furious hissing of Kateäk toward him. Then there was a sound- the rush of the waves on the shore / the drumming of fingers on the arm of a throne / the smoldering of sundered atoms- as the Sovereign admonished his vanity, to think himself capable of questioning those above him.

He bared his teeth. _"All things strive to understand their place in this unfit reality. Those above me see things I do not,"_ he acknowledged, _"gifted with foresight and farsight. They see more of the board than I, they plan moves to happen ages from now. But with my brother and brethren dead, then I deserve to know what strategy or scheme my death will achieve."_

There was another sound- the shifting of dust and sand / the laughter of a court en masse / a thrumming note on taut wire- as the Sovereign was amused at his conceit, that he might be capable of understanding such things. Even Kateäk was chuckling at him, finding humor in this.

But Üles Matu remained steadfast. _"In such presumptions, all Sovereigns gain power. The King Our Navigator grew strong in knowing things others did not. The Lord Our Marshal grows strong by making strategies our enemies could not withstand. The Queen Our Witch grows strong when her schemes mislead." _He turned his gaze up to the threefold reality before him. _"I ask not for the whole shape of the puzzle. Tell me that there is a reason to keep such a predator alive. That there is a reason to sacrifice my brethren and I besides stubborn curiosity."_

Kateäk narrowed her gaze at him. _"Such knowledge is dangerous, Üles Matu."_

He shrugged and bowed his head. _"Aiat."_ There was nothing else he needed to say.

Kateäk opened her mouth to speak again, but there was again the shifting/laughing/thrumming sound of the Sovereign's amusement. The Queen of Chains fell silent as there was- a crash of tides / the applause of a gathered throng / the hum of a whetted razor blade- the sound of the Sovereign's approval, for he had spoken well of his conviction.

The Blade Unbreaking bowed his head once again, but kept silent as there was- the slosh of brine / a murmuring of a choir / a chime of dying spheres- the Sovereign agreed that he should be granted a glimpse of deeper knowledge, of why the loss of so many Champions and lesser Hive was so important, and why the Slayer had been contained so long ago instead of simply killed.

And then the depths opened and poured into his mind. It was- a tsunami slamming down upon the shores / a howl as of from a thousand throats echoing off resonant walls / a shriek of dying galaxies- more than he had imagined. His crest cracked, his skull throbbed, and his worm writhed in agony. Ichor bled from his ear ducts and from all three eyes, and his bellow ranged across the shore. He slumped, and only the unbreaking spire of his blade kept him from collapsing completely.

At last, the pain ceased, and silence descended on his perception forevermore, but in his mind he still heard- a gush of waves on the beach / the hushed whispers of the massed ranks / the quiet pulsations of quasar nebulae- the Sovereign speak of how he should stay content with the glimpse he had received, and be grateful he still lived.

Üles Matu dragged himself to his feet using his blade as a crutch, and when he spoke, it was in the unmodulated volume of the deafened. _"My thanks and my gratitude shall be from my sword. I shall either drive him back into the Oubliette to see such schemes fulfilled, or I shall fall and the logic shall be satisfied."_

There was- one last rush of waves on sand / one last round of applause from the court / one last sharp note of humming wire- one final approval from the Sovereign before the threefold reality collapsed back into the shores on the edge of the Deep. Kateäk folded her claws as she hovered over him. _"Art thou satisfied, O Blade Unbreaking?"_

He nodded. _"My blade has served. It will continue to serve. Whatever the outcome."_

She smiled. _"Aiat."_

Üles Matu knew his life was forfeit.

* * *

Afterword: Again more of a delay than I intended, but I needed to figure out how to proceed forward after the fight with the Force Unyielding. I want to make sure this story doesn't go too far beyond ten chapters, if I'm honest. I never intended for this story to get as long as it did, but as ever, my creative center had its own ideas.

As one might expect, _Shadowkeep_ and the impending Season of Dawn have me occupied with all that juicy, juicy lore. As a Titan main, the fact that we're getting the most Titan of Titans back is getting me hyped. In the next chapter, the current plan is for the Blade Unbreaking to collide with the Slayer and Guardians, but I've got to determine exactly how the endgame of the story will wrap up. I know the "final shape," as it were, but it's getting there that presently eludes.

Happy Dawning, Guardians!

Jay 2K Winger

9 Dec 2019


	7. Chapter 7

_**Stalk. Search. Hunt.**_

_Anger smoldered as it always did. Crystal had stank of energy. Energy that could be used against Enemy. Had reached out to take it. Had felt the twist of chains in the air. Seen the green fire glimmer in smoke and shadow. Tasted the fetid miasma as the air choked and smothered. Smelled the Enemy magic swirl around him. Heard the chanting from an enemy throat._

_**Baited. Snared. Trapped.**_

_Witch-trap would not hold long. Lightbearers were fighting Enemy around him. Scout was above, picking off shooters and acolytes. Soldier was gunning down thrall and engaging knights. Scholar drove the lesser-witch away with cannon fire. Glared at trap, punched at it with a fist. Trap held firm._

_**Resilient. More. Crystal.**_

_Trap was sprung, no longer threat. Grabbed bait-crystal, crushed it in a fist. Felt the energies surge through muscle and bone. Power throbbed in heart and brain. Bent the energies to his will. Drove fist against chains. Trap shattered. Battle ensued. Big fucking gun recharging. Did not matter._

_**Gun. Knife. Fist. Enough.**_

_Had ripped through Enemy hordes, as always had done. Since age long forgotten. Could not remember home. Only fragments of time before rage. There had been more in life then. Happier times under bright Sky in pure Light._

_**Family. Fellowship. Mirth. Prosperity.**_

_Then a hole had opened in the skies. The Enemy had come and changed everything. Worlds shattered and broken. Peoples slaughtered and sacrificed. Had battled against them, but wasn't enough. Sky was bathed in Darkness as demons emerged from the Deep._

_**Death. Betrayal. Hatred. Ruin.**_

_Brethren had fallen before them. To the blade. To the gun. To the song. To the temptation. Had battled on, refusing to stop. Last one standing, did not matter. Fight like hell. Family and people annihilated, did not matter. Fight like hell. Exhaustion and pain darkening vision, nothing left to do. Fight like hell._

_**Focus. Sword. Warden.**_

_Out of reverie, into the battle. Warden engaging. Parried and gunned down lesser-knights. Heard the Witch shriek and chant. Felt the rending of worlds. Saw the gateway open. Abyssal Champion. Blackened armor and broadhead axe. Smelled the fury and hatred. Disciple of the Darkblade. Force Unyielding._

_**Memory. Ambush. Battle. Stalemate. Rematch.**_

_Went for the big fucking gun. Knights engaged. Gunned down first. Grabbed its sword. Impaled the second. Warden closed in. Lunged away. Corpse slammed atop him. Warden did not go for killing blow. Turned head. Saw Darkblade coming._

_**Clever. Not enough. Move.**_

_Shoved gun through corpse. Click click. Boom boom. Warden toppled. Weight shifted. Darkblade swung. Rolled aside, got free of corpse. Crack of thunder. Soldier flew like missile into Darkblade. Force Unyielding did not fall. Avoided axe swing while Lightbearers chattered. Talking strategy among them. Fought beside them as Darkblade kept advancing, as Witch wove spells and attacked from above._

_**Persist. Redouble. Fight. Fight. Fight.**_

_Scholar was trapped in chains. Lightbearers could not break them. Sword and strength not enough to break Enemy chains. Saw tool at feet. Blades on a chain. Smelled Deep energies in it._

_**Answer same. Turn it back. Like affects like.**_

_Ripped the cord of tool. Heard it shriek. Tore it through chains to free scholar. Looked to scout. Understanding passed. Battle plans chattered. Soldier fired rocket, scout hurled burning blades. Ripped saw through Darkblade's armor. Tore it through flesh and bone._

_**Crippled. Downed. Not enough.**_

_Lightbearers were chattering again. Soldier barked command. Burst of light and noise. Gritted teeth through it. Soldier grabbed Warden's sword. Understood soldier's plan. Like affects like. Soldier broke Force Unyielding's axe. Further crippled Darkblade's legs. Soldier shattered Enemy's crest. Drove saw into skull._

_**Visceral blow. Primal rush. Righteous kill.**_

_Abyssal Champions were tough. Could still survive, as Demon of the Deep had done in ages past. Brought boot down on skull. Again and again and again and again. Stomping wet flecks of foam into the deck plates. Soldier finally pulled him back. Lightbearers were chattering again. Ignored them. Rage was still boiling. _

**_Always was. Always had. Always would. _**

_Could not sense Witch. Scent was gone. Knew she was still alive. Needed to keep moving. Took smell of the trap. Found scent of lesser-witch. Warden's consort and Keeper of prison. Not his main prey. But would be enough to start with._

_**Move. Track. Hunt.**_

* * *

"I still think we should go." Morgan was keeping an eye on their rear as they followed the Slayer through the Clovis Bray mines beneath the UAC facility. Hive growth covered many surfaces, and their Ghosts were providing light. Ahead of them, the Slayer seemed to need no such illumination, spoor and stone crunching beneath his boots. The Titan continued, "If the Big Guy wants to keep hunting Hive down here, let him, but the Vanguard needs to know what we found."

Rega-7 shook her head. "No, Morgan. I'm not leaving anyone in any Hive spaces. You've seen how that can end up."

Morgan growled. "Look, just because you sympathize with Eris Morn- and believe me, I get it, I feel sorry for her, too- doesn't mean you get to unilaterally decide to let us get stuck in Hive spaces."

"And suppose that we leave the Big Guy to it," Rega turned around at last to look at him. "Maybe he does kill them all. Maybe he walks into another chain-witch trap, and this time he can't escape it. Maybe they just lock him up again. Or maybe they do something much worse."

Wahei made a noise. There was a thoughtful sound to it, tinged with some lingering pain in her burned hands and arms. "The Slayer does seem like he's steeped pretty heavily in Dark power, even if he may have been originally empowered by the Traveler. I'd lay heavy odds on Dredgen Cull's followers finding him a worthy convert." She suddenly stopped, sucking in a breath. "Or, worse, if he's not a Guardian and doesn't have the same protections we do from it, he could end up getting Taken."

That made all of them stop and share a look. Rega shuddered. "Don't even joke about that."

"I don't often have nightmares, exactly," Wahei continued, "but when I do, Taken Guardians are often a feature of them."

Morgan grumbled. "Right. Well. Not happy about it, but..." He sighed. "In for the glimmer, in for the silver. We hunt down the chain-witch, put her down, and then we drag the Big Guy out of here. Agreed?"

* * *

Nar Eiru looked up as her Queen emerged from a tear in reality. The Keeper of the Oubliette bowed to her. _"My Queen, I've rallied what forces I have left. The Slayer still hunts, but with the last Warden dead, and two Abyssal Champions besides, it may not be enough to stop him."_

Kateäk simply nodded. _"Aiat."_ It was this way because there was no other way, it was inevitable.

Nar Eiru bowed her head again. _"Aiat,"_ she repeated, then drew back as the Queen of Chains weaved her spell. Stone and crystal shaped itself into a portal on the wall, and from the blessed Deep stepped the last Abyssal Champion. Üles Matu cast his gaze over the massed ranks of the Chained Swarm, and she bowed her crest to him. _"O Blade Unbreaking, what would you have us do?"_

Üles Matu grunted. _"You will bring your best to the Oubliette. There, we will occupy the Slayer and the Lightborn. Our Queen will weave the wards to entrap them._"

She turned to Kateäk. _"My Queen, I and my surviving coven will begin laying the runes to empower the Oubliette." _She snapped out commands to her coven as she drifted off to see to the preparations.

The Blade Unbreaking directed the surviving Knights of the Chained Swarm to their own positions, before glancing to Kateäk. _"This swarm will fall before the Deepbane approaching them. I am the last Champion to have survived the original battle where the Slayer was captured the first time. It took our entire coterie to slow him then."_

The Queen of Chains steepled her fingers as she looked down at him. _"Yes. But we have one Champion remaining besides yourself. While you and Nar Eiru delay them, I will work to bring this last Champion here."_

The Abyssal Champion's eyes narrowed. _"What Champion is this? What Champion can be spared from the Archentrope's game in the twilight people's reef? Did one of the Lord Marshal's warriors elevate themselves above the rest of Her cohort?"_

She was silent. _"If it means stopping the Slayer from its unstoppable path of annihilation of our people, then it is worth doing. Even if would be called heretical."_ She snapped her hand to the side, dismissing the topic. _"See to the preparations, Üles Matu."_

* * *

There hadn't been too many Hive in the tunnels they'd passed through. A patrol here, a small squadron there, all them charging in with desperate savagery. The Slayer had ripped his way through them with barely a falter in his stride, tearing limbs off and breaking them before marching onward, so the Guardians only had to finish off the ones that clung to life. They caught up to the giant as he stood before a chasm, the network of caves continuing on beyond it.

Morgan came up beside the Slayer, then eyed the chasm and the distance to the next landing. He whistled. "Mind the gap," he grunted. "Rega, you think you could make that jump?"

Their Hunter did some calculations. "Probably not without some elevation. You could make it, though, just missile yourself across-"

"That leaves you two and the Big Guy over here, and me by myself against all those Hive." Morgan shook his head. "Eyeball, can you scan the caves and see if there's an alternate route over there?"

"Hold off on that a moment." This was from Wahei. The Warlock was examining some of the Hive structure that was emerging from the caves' melting ice. She leaned closer to squint at the runes. Then she looked out over the chasm, running her eyes over the empty air. "Yeah. There's some Hive platforms out there we can use, if I can get them to manifest in this plane of reality. Gonna need a boost of Hive energy, though."

Morgan nodded. "There was a Hive crystal in the last cave. I'll go grab it."

Rega-7 glanced to Wahei. "There some reason that we can't just jump out there where they should be? They usually pop up when we get close."

"Main reason is I don't know specifically where we are." Their Warlock smiled at her. "But if you want to just trail-and-error our way through this, feel free. I promise I won't tease you that much, but I will keep a tally of the number of rezzes we have to do." Then she shrugged. "Other reason is these platforms are like the ones you find in the Dreaming City. You can't see or land on them without some means of thinning the boundaries between realities. I didn't bring any queensfoil with me. Did you? I don't know what methods the Techeuns use to open the way into the Ascendant Plane, but I learned a few things from Eris Morn. With a little Hive energy, I should catalyze the platforms' resonance field, and tug at the dimensional superstrings, weaken the dimensional wall, fudge some of the deep math numbers, and make them appear-"

The Slayer glared at her with a frustrated grunt, and Rega sighed. "Not the time for a step-by-step explanation, Wahei."

"Oh, no, no, no," the Awoken shook her head. " I'm going to make it look easy, but that belies how difficult it actually is. I want you to know exactly how tricky this is to pull off." She turned as Morgan came jogging back with a Hive crystal. He tossed it to Wahei, then brushed the spoor off his hands. She turned the crystal over in her hands, then had to jerk it back away from the Slayer's grasping fingers. "Back off, Big Guy. Trust me."

Rega held up a hand to keep the Slayer from advancing with malice aforethought. "I know she's annoying sometimes," she said at the giant, "but she knows what she's doing. Just watch." The Slayer growled, but held back.

The Warlock now held the crystal in a bubble of Void energy, fingers working as if plucking or tying threads around it. Her lips moved, subvocally murmuring syllables. After a moment, she held the bubbled crystal up and glanced over her shoulder. "Okay, Big Guy, get ready to shoot." She cocked her arm back, and flung it out into the open air. "And GO!"

The Slayer drew his sawed-off shotgun and snap-fired. The bubble and crystal burst in a flash of color that didn't quite fit into the normal electromagnetic spectrum, like a fluorescent greenish yellow-purple. Energy rippled, and then with a shimmer, several platforms materialized along the chasm's space. Wahei nodded. "There we go. Let's get going. The dimensional resonance will revert in a few minutes. We shouldn't linger." As she backed up, she muttered under her breath, "Not least because I don't want to be here if a _Canis tindalis _turns up..."

Morgan blinked and looked over as she leapt to the first platform. "Wait, what was that last part?"

"Nothing!"

* * *

"Seeing a lot more Hive structure now." Rega-7 had to move double-time just to keep up with the Slayer. The giant wasn't running, but his long strides were tireless and he had no interest in stopping to let the Guardians explore. He'd made the jump to the platforms over the chasm without issue, and after landing on the far side, he'd looked around, drawing in deep breaths through his nose, before plunging onward.

Somewhere behind them, Wahei was taking a slower pace, needing to recuperate after her working. Her voice crackled over the comms, "If I'm reading some of these runes correctly, this structure focused Deep energies inward, to maintain suppressive wards and presumably strengthen Kateäk's magics."

"It's a prison," Morgan interrupted. He had dropped back to keep pace with Wahei, so as not to leave their Warlock alone. He continued, "Don't give me that look. That knight up there with the half-melted armor was called the 'Warden of the Oubliette,' wasn't he? I think we're getting close to it. And I'll give you three guesses as to who used to be locked up in it, but you're only gonna need one."

Rega was quiet as she watched the bulk of the Slayer continue to march deeper into the Hive prison, turning this knowledge over in her head. "I'm now wondering just how dangerous the Big Guy was, if the Hive had to build a prison specifically to contain one person, _and_ station an Ascendant there to keep him contained. Only Alak-Hul the Darkblade got anything like as major a confinement, and even then it wasn't a custom-built prison with an entire swarm _and_ an Ascendant guarding it."

"Well," their Warlock sounded thoughtful. "Alak-Hul's cell was on the Dreadnought, with Oryx's Court and the Taken King himself-"

"Not the time, Wahei." Rega jogged ahead to catch up with the Slayer, who had leapt down from a ledge into an open chamber. He was breathing in deeply, and she now had a good idea what he was doing. Thinking on it, it explained much about how he'd led them through the ruined CB-UAC facility and then the Hive caves back to the prison. "I think the Big Guy can smell the Hive. Especially the powerful ones like the chain-witch."

"I noticed it too," Morgan chimed in. He and Wahei had caught up now and were joining them in the chamber. "The way he breathes and turns his head after the various fights reminds me of a hunting dog. Like Josef's."

Wahei tapped her chin. "Hmm. I wonder how the Slayer's smell-tracking thing works? Is it something he's developed over the ages? Or is it a natural talent he's honed since he was blessed by the Traveler? How does he pick out the smell of a particular Hive out of everything else? Because the Hive are pretty rank, what with all the worm spoor and general filth in their places-"

The Slayer snapped his head around to glare at her, and without even making a sound, it silenced the chattering Awoken. He turned to regard the chamber, and now they could see that there were more columns covered in Hive runes. Rega wasn't deeply familiar with runic translation like Wahei was, but she compared these to the ones they'd seen back up closer to the surface, when they'd first encountered Kateäk. They looked similar. "Isn't this more of that archival runic?"

Wahei nodded. "Sure does. Vizier, mind taking a quick look and try translating it for us?"

"Do we have time for this?" Morgan loaded his shotgun. "Save the archive binge for after we've purged this place. We need to be on alert. We're deep in Hive territory here."

Rega-7 frowned, glancing around. "Yeah, that's worrying me, too. They're picking the battleground. We could be walking into a trap..."

_"Very insightful."_ The high, cold voice of the Queen of Chains rang through the chamber. _"I and mine kept the Slayer imprisoned for ages. Thus it was and would have been for ages more until your Light broke his chains."_

"Yeah, real shame about that," Morgan called out, as he raised his auto-rifle. "It's almost like that's what we do."

"You should come out," Rega added, "and we could talk about it, like civilized people."

Kateäk gave a short, mirthless laugh. _"There is no discourse to be had with those who do not embrace the Logic of the Sword. And certainly not with Lightborn like those who killed the King of Depths."_ There was a _thrum_ of power and Hive runes began to glow along the walls. _"And as for the Deepbane with you, the Slayer has no words for those he considers Enemy. He will not hear us. The only language he speaks is violence."_

"We noticed," Morgan grunted.

"You know we're not going to stop," Rega called as she drew her katana and SMG.

_"Nor shall we,"_ the Queen of Chains' voice was blunt as the runes continued to light up. _"Thus it is this way, because there is no other way, it is inevitable. Aiat!"_

They spun as Hive started pouring into the room. The air filled with howls and shrieks as thrall leapt toward them. Gunfire erupted as the Guardians opened up on them, and the Slayer's sawed-off boomed as it blasted a pair of thrall into ash. Rega was aware of the giant working the breach of the shotgun between each shot, but she didn't see any shells on his belt or anywhere on his armor. And yet, as he slapped away a leaping thrall with a backhanded blow, he thrust the sawed-off into the mouth of another and blew its head to chunks with another pull of the trigger.

Wahei kept up the rhythm of her scout rifle's fire, but saw the horde coming toward them and shouted out, "Warp!" Morgan and Rega stepped backward as the Warlock gathered the Light of the Void around her, shimmering with purple energy between her palms as she floated off the floor. Pulses of it rippled outward from her as she Blinked out of sight, reappearing amid the horde before releasing a more powerful blast of the Void, scattering thrall like broken dolls, and leaving violet-tinged ash scattering over the deck. More thrall shrieked out of dark holes in the Hive prison, and acolytes and knights now began to come marching to meet her. She Blinked once more into their midst and released another burst of Void Light, and Hive died howling from it all. One final Blink-eruption shattered another wave before she Blinked back to her companions, being caught in Morgan's arm as she sagged, gasping for breath.

"That should ease the tide some," Wahei panted as she drew her hand cannon.

_"How can your paltry Light stand against the tide that is to come?"_ Kateäk's voice still rang in the air, though she was not visible. _"You are alone down here, Lightborn. The Deep will sweep upon you and you shall drown in it. Aiat!"_

The Guardians picked off a few stragglers from the horde that had attacked, but then the doors at one end of the chambers were shoved open by another Abyssal Champion. Like the others, his immense form was sheathed in blackened adamantine armor, but this one hefted the largest Hive Cleaver that Rega had ever seen. It was blackened like his armor, but the jagged edge gleamed with a horrible keenness.

The Abyssal glared down at them through the wide-crested helmet it wore. _"It has been many Ages since I last slew Lightborn,"_ the colossal Hive Knight declared. _"Do you remember, Deepbane? How the sentinels that guarded your world against the night fell? Their weapons could not slow me. Could not stand against the Logic of the Sword. And now you shall join them, Slayer. You and these accursed Lightborn!"_ The Champion raised his sword and slammed the point of it into a ritual circle before the doors. Dark energies rippled up the walls, and the runes upon them flashed into life.

The Guardians all felt a sharp pressure slam into them, leaving them briefly gasping. "They've restricted our access to the Light," Wahei groaned as she faced the Abyssal.

"Nothing we haven't handled before," Rega-7 tried to assure her, one hand aiming her SMG, the other dropping back to the hilt of her katana.

The Champion noticed this. A chuckle emanated from deep in its chest. _"Come, then, Hunter. Test your sword against mine, if you dare. You shall shatter just as it will against the Blade Unbreaking." _The Abyssal raised the sword and roared, an echoing cry that was echoed as more acolytes and thrall began to rush into the room.

The Slayer's fists tightened at his sides, and he reached back for the stock of the BFG on his back. Morgan, however, stopped him. "I got this, Big Guy." Thunder rolled from his voice and lightning coursed along his form as he pushed off ground, leaping high into the air before coming down amid the horde, Fists of Havoc slamming a shockwave of pure Arc Energy around him. Hive fell back shrieking, crumpled to death-ash, and then the Titan was sprinting toward the Abyssal Champion, who adjusted its grip on the sword as he approached. With a flash, Morgan closed the distance toward the Blade Unbreaking, but it swung its namesake sword in a rising arc, swatting the Titan from the air. He hit the wall hard, slumping down and leaving a crimson streak behind him. His breath wheezed as he struggled to stand.

Üles Matu strode forward with the intent of impaling the downed Guardian with the point of his blade, but paused as another form darted past, feeling something scrape across his armor. He turned as Rega made another lunge with her katana, and he brought the Blade Unbreaking up to parry her sword, laughing as the blade shattered on his own. _"It is said that you Lightborn make your own Fate. And you have made yours to die on my sword!" _The Champion knocked her aside with the sweep of an arm, and raised his sword to bring it down with an overhand chop on the crippled Titan.

* * *

_**Track. Stalk. Hunt.**_

_Caverns grew familiar. Passed through once before after escape from Oubliette. Had barely paid attention. Rage had burned too hotly after escape. Ripped through Wardens and torn through Enemy in blinding fury. Fists had been caked in bone and spoor and ash._

_**Rage. Fury. Berserk.**_

_Instinct always won out over intellect. Intellect still worked. Remembered things glimpsed in passing. Witch was drawing them toward prison. Could smell Deep stench. Growing stronger, Enemy getting desperate. Could smell presence of another Abyssal. Familiar._

_**Lure. Bait. Trap.**_

_Witch knew her business. Hunt would persist. No matter how obvious the snare. If an Enemy was perceived, it must be destroyed. Lightbearers followed, chattering as always. Scholar studying Enemy markings. Ignored her, kept going. Witch could not run forever._

_**Cliff. Gorge. Chasm.**_

_Impassable pit. Could not scale across walls. Could not remember path taken out of prison. Witch had come this way. To slow the advance. To stall the hunt. Lightbearers plotted route. Soldier sent back. Scholar chattered on. Tried to silence her. Would not be silenced. Soldier returned with crystal._

_**Energy. Power. Hunger.**_

_Reached for crystal, but scholar took it away. Scout assured. Scholar performed working. Using Enemy's ways to reveal path. Platforms over chasm. Followed Lightbearers across pit and continued the hunt._

_**Chamber. Runes. Prison gate.**_

_Prison was near. Witch was too. Ignored Lightbearers' chattering while tracking scent. Witch's voice heard. Taunted Lightbearers. Would not reveal herself. Witch knew it was forever._

_**Eternal. Inevitable. Aiat.**_

_Hordes of Enemy came forth. Fought them off with fist and gun. Scholar called out warning. Saw her teleport about, unleashing fury of the Void upon the Enemy. Horde scattered. Scholar exhausted._

_**Void. Annihilation. Power.**_

_Witch taunting again. Stench rose. There stood an Enemy. Abyssal Champion. Broad crest and jagged sword. Memory stirred. Grim resolve and inexorable march. Champion of countless gladiatorial pits. Chosen of the Sword. Blade Unbreaking._

_**Conqueror. Sentinel's Bane. HATE.**_

_Reached for big fucking gun. Soldier stepped forward. Called down thunder on Enemy, scattered them with lightning. Flashed toward Sentinel's Bane, cut down by Blade Unbreaking. Scout rushed forward with sword, shattered against Blade Unbreaking. Heard scholar cry out with alarm. Chosen swung blade for soldier._

_**NO. NEVER AGAIN. HATEHATEHATEHATEHATE.**_

_Let the rage boil up. Reached for the Power. Long forgotten under ages and ages and ages of hate. Felt the Light sing up bone and sinew and nerves. Heard teeth grind and jaw clench. For ages, hate had been enough. No need for anything but fist and knife and gun and everything else. Forgotten the blessing of Sky._

_**LIGHT. COME. FORTH.**_

* * *

Afterword: Happy Crimson Days, Guardians! Sorry, as ever, for any delays! This chapter took a little longer to get to an endpoint, but I believe I know where it will go from here. The next chapter will be about the battle with the Blade Unbreaking, and the arrival of this crossover's version of one of the classic Doom bosses. I think two more chapters total for this story before it wraps up._ Slayer_ has now become my most popular story on every site where I've posted it, with nearly four times as many followers on FF Dot Net as the next highest, and almost five times as many alerts.

For those Doom fans coming into this story that are unfamiliar with Destiny's lore, the best site to bone up on it is the Ishtar Collective site. The Books of Sorrow is a good starting place for Hive-related lore.

Hopefully I can get back into the writing groove for this and finish it up soon. Until next time, RIP AND TEAR!

Jay 2K Winger

14-Feb-2020


	8. Chapter 8

The Ascendant Plane thrummed with power around the Queen of Chains. Around her were the furnishings and accouterments of rites and rituals. Artifacts glowed as they hovered by her sides. A flat pane of crystal floated before her, allowing a focus for the vision of her eyes to peer through the boundaries of the dimensions. Her chains wound through the air around her, around the artifacts, supporting the pane, and weaving through the planes of reality.

Through the crystal window, Kateäk saw the Slayer leading the Lightborn into the prison complex, toward the Oubliette. The loss of the Wardens would make containment difficult, but at the very least Nar Eiru would help in keeping it energized and maintaining the wards to inhibit the Lightborn's insufferable abilities. The three of them would not be an insurmountable obstacle, they were not the Hivebane who had slain the King Their Navigator. The logic was certain and she had to put her trust into it.

She saw Üles Matu swat away the Titan and felt a surge of hope. With the Sky's blessing restricted from them, he would not be able to recover by himself. She trusted the Abyssal Champion to be able to keep the pressure on them, along with the surviving members of her Chained Swarm. She bared her teeth in a smile of satisfaction as the Hunter leapt to her teammate's defense, only to have her sword shatter against the Blade Unbreaking.

The plane around her twisted, but she recognized the way it altered about her. This was not her Sovereign calling her again. Her altar still hovered before her with all of her artifacts and her crystals, but out of the corner of one eye, she saw the musty and cluttered study chamber. Out of another, another altar space painted in the effusion of death and the blades of ritual. And out of the back of the last eye, she saw the formlessness of the true Deep. And drifting up beside her, the Banished Prince steepled his claws and gave a her a smile, but he looked into the viewing pane before her.

_"So and so, Te Akka,"_ he purred. _"A final attempt to resolve this matter on your own, is it? And how do think this will fare?"_

She ignored him, merely hissed as she wove another spell, scrawling a rune in the air and pressing it into the flat surface of crystal in front of her. She turned her head and addressed the space in front of her instead. _"Nar Eiru, unleash your poisons, fog their battlefield with toxins, we must not allow them a moment's respite!"_

And then she saw the Slayer reach his boiling point.

* * *

Rega-7 felt parts of her internals crack and snap from the Abyssal's backhanded blow, and then break further as she hit the wall. She pushed herself up and snap-drew her SMG, unloading a fusillade into a pack of thrall that scurried toward her, seeing Wahei firing her hand cannon at the acolytes closing on her. But she heard Morgan wheeze for breath as he tried to push himself up, and painstakingly try to raise his shotgun toward the advancing bulk of the Champion. Rega grunted as she heard the hammer click on an empty chamber in her weapon. She'd always wondered how she'd be returned to the Light.

Then she heard the thump of the Slayer's boots. In what felt like slow motion, she saw the giant's gaze swing from her to Morgan, then up at the Abyssal. His fists clenched, and he visibly shook with rage. Throughout their time with the green-armored man, she'd seen that fury evident in his body language, but it had always been a subtle thing, something that only her Exo optics had been able to discern. Now, however, he trembled, and as she watched, she saw the shimmer of energy beginning to course up his arms and throughout his body. Without breaking his gaze from his Enemy, the Slayer shoved his sawed-off shotgun into a holster in his armor.

And then he exploded into action.

A man that size should not have been able to move that quickly. She couldn't count how many Hive stood between him and the Abyssal, but after a moment, she stopped trying to count and just tried to keep up with his movements, and even that was impossible. A thrall was smashed aside, its upper half reduced to dust with one backhanded blow. He shoved into an acolyte's chest and wrenched it in two vertically. A fist punched into a knight's chest and yanked the worm from inside, throwing it aside with contempt. Pieces of Hive were scattered and thrown as he continued to rip and tear his way through them with his bare hands, but from what she could tell through the visor, his gaze hadn't broken from the Champion, who had paused above the downed form of Morgan.

Three more thrall leaped toward him, but he swung a fist that dripped with sanguine Light, and all three thrall crumpled before him into smoldering ash. Another knight lunged for him, but the Slayer leapt toward it, crunching his boot into its skull before springing off and toward the Abyssal. The enormous Hive Champion raised his sword, catching the Slayer with the jagged edge, then shoving him back with a slap to the reverse side. The Slayer hit the ground, but swung back to his feet with a shove of his fists. His chest heaved, and his armor was cracked, blood dripping through. A mortal wound, but it barely seemed to faze him.

Rega swung onto her back and jabbed a knife into a thrall that came for her, but the motion caused the handle of her broken katana to slide away from her. The Slayer looked down and scooped it up. To her astonishment, the blood-hued Light was channeled down his arm and into the handle. With a thrum of power, a wide blade of scarlet energy erupted from the jagged end. Calling upon more of that impossible speed, the Slayer dashed toward the Abyssal Champion, who brought the Blade Unbreaking to bear.

The scarlet blade bit into the jagged edge, and the Abyssal began to raise one foot to bring down with a forceful stomp. But the Slayer kicked out with his own foot, and with another flash of blood-hued Light, cracked the adamantine armor of Üles Matu's knee. The Abyssal staggered back, and bellowed as the Slayer chopped his blade down and through the Hive's sword, and rendered its name untrue. The Champion lunged with the broken hilt, but the Slayer kicked it back against the wall with another superpowered kick, shattering the armor on its chest.

The Slayer stomped toward it, raising the scarlet blade again. The Abyssal looked up at him. _"All my death will accomplish is the pointless vengeance for your deceased brethren."_ A wet chuckle came from beneath the broad-crested helm. _"I have bought the Queen of Chains time she needs to secure your capture. You will not escape us again, Slayer."_

The Slayer swung the blade, and the head of Üles Matu rolled into its lap. A thrust of the blade cracked open the Abyssal armor, and he reached inside to drag out the fat, wriggling worm, which he held up before him. With a wet squelching pop, his fingers closed into a fist and splattered the floor with slime and ichor. Turning away from the slain form, Rega could see that already his armor was knitting itself back together as the Light from his blade faded.

* * *

_"So and so,"_ the Prince chuckled. _"As before, as always in all planes and all times, the Slayer's rage will not allow him to perish to our swords."_

Kateäk had gone still. Her robes hung limp around her, and even the ever-slithering chains that adorned her body clung lifelessly to her arms. In all the ages she had existed and worked to stop and then imprison the Slayer, she had never seen him call forth on the Sky's blessing in such a fashion. It had only ever been fist, knife, gun. That had been all he had needed and all that he had used against them in all of his campaigns of doom and slaughter. What _was_ he?

_"The logic has failed,"_ the Prince continued. _"This is the wisdom that the Worm My God imparted to me. This is the truth that even my nieces have discovered in their pits beneath the surface of that benighted moon. The logic works only when not opposed by something like the Light. And when such a force is arrayed against us, then other sources of power must be drawn upon."_

She spun to face him, and saw the shape forming out of the shapeless Deep / emerge into the dusty study / laying on the slab atop the altar. What had once been Baalgar was just recognizable under the changes the Argent Nail had wrought upon him. The broken horn on his crest was unmistakable, and even some of the scars were still visible on his chest. She could feel the power thrumming within him, but it was _wrong_.

But that was the logic thinking for her. And she had come to realize that where the Slayer was concerned, the logic did not apply.

* * *

The lesser Hive were all gone. Rega could not tell if this was because the Slayer had slaughtered them all, or if some had escaped his wrath and had fled before it, but she didn't care. Wahei limped over to her and helped her to her feet, and then they went over to Morgan, who coughed wetly. The Warlock threw down a healing rift and the three of them felt their wounds and injuries heal as they regarded the Slayer, who was prowling around the room looking for something to kill.

"What the fuck is he?" Rega-7 turned to Morgan as the Titan got to his feet, stretching out his back and checking his weapons. He looked as his teammates. "I mean... that was the Light he just called on, wasn't it?"

"Wasn't any kind of Light I've ever felt before," Wahei murmured, staring at the giant. "And it definitely felt ... _wrong_, somehow." She paused. "But that could be bias. Whatever he is, he wasn't empowered by the Traveler the same way we were."

Rega shook her head. "He was unreal." She mentally replayed what she had been able to see during his berserk rampage. "He took those Hive apart with his bare hands." With a glance at the fallen Champion, she added, "And if that Abyssal had been a half-second slower, I think he might have killed it with his bare hands, too."

Wahei breathed out. "Well, that's three Abyssal Champions down. There can't be many more left around here."

"Can't be sure of that," the Hunter interjected. "Until we put Kateäk down, she could call up as many as she likes."

As one, they turned to the Slayer, who had paused in his endless search for prey upon hearing the name of the Queen of Chains. Rega-7 knew that no words were necessary to ask him for help. He wanted the same thing they did, and he understood enough to know that. He took a deep breath, head slowly turning as he sought his quarry. Then he turned and looked toward the door from which the last Abyssal had emerged.

Morgan nodded, slotting a fresh magazine of ammunition into his shotgun. "Great." He gave his weapon a cock. "Let's go kill this witch." The Slayer looked to him, drawing out his own sawed-off and slotting two fresh cartridges into the breech and snapping it shut emphatically.

The four of them moved into the short, darkened hallway until they emerged on the lip of a great pit. Several balconies were arrayed around them, all showing the necrotic shine of Hive architecture. Once they might have been occupied by the Chained Swarm, but now they stood empty. These balconies were arrayed in tiers descending into the depths, and lining the ledges and the walls between them all were great linked chains, in which Hive runes could be glimpsed, glowing with sickly green light. The Slayer reached the closest ledge and looked down into the shadowed depths. He took another deep breath, then turned to the Guardians. He nodded once, then leapt off and dropped into the pit. The Guardians shared one look of their own, and followed him down.

At the bottom of the pit was a wide space, but in the center was a raised platform, on which lay an open sarcophagus. On the floor next to this was the shattered remains of the lid. The space within was man-shaped, but the dimensions within left no doubt as to who had been in it, especially given the sides of the sarcophagus were stamped with the same sigil that gleamed on the side of the Slayer's helmet. By the looks of things, Rega guessed that the broken chains that littered the area around the sarcophagus had been bound around the thing as well. She could smell Hive death-ash around here, too, probably from the other Wardens that had been charged with guarding it.

Wahei whistled slightly as she looked around. "So this is where they kept him sealed away..." She paused and tilted her head. "But that's... incredible, actually. If what the chain-witch said is true, then when we killed the baby Abomination back up near the surface, our Light managed to permeate all the way down here and loosen the bindings on the Big Guy. He then broke out, killed stars know how many Hive down here, and fought his way up and all the way up to the UAC facilities where he met us, and he did it in-" She paused, caught the look that Rega was giving her, as well as the angry grunt from the Slayer, and summarized, "-less time it took for us to make it back here."

Morgan harrumphed. "As gratifying as it is that it may have been our Light alone that broke him out, my guess is the bindings got weakened after all the chaos back around the Braytech Futurescape when the Hero of the Red War killed that Worm God. Our Light was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back." He paused, then smirked. "Regardless of how it happened, we definitely had a hand in it."

"Not the time, guys," Rega interrupted. "Big Guy tracked the chain-witch down here, way down beneath the surface, where they can restrict our access to the Light, and I can't help but notice that the witch is nowhere to be seen."

_"Indeed not."_ The high, cold voice echoed around the pit, and there was a pulse of power that thrummed through the chamber. Two curved pillars began to light up with more Hive runes. _"You have killed nearly all of the Champions that the Deep has provided. I had feared that I might never contain the threat the Deepbane presents. But I never imagined that you would all just willingly walk back into its cell."_

"We Guardians haven't always been known for making the smart choices," Morgan called out. "But you know, despite that, we always come out on top."

_"Tell that to the thousands that Crota the Hope-Eater slaughtered on your moon,"_ Kateäk snapped.

"We did," Wahei replied. "You should ask Crota about what we did about it. Oh wait, you can't."

The Queen of Chains snarled and howled with fury. _"You and the Slayer could slaughter the entire Hive, scour every brood from every world and every star and every mote in this plane and the next and the next, and it will not matter in the slightest! The end is coming. And there is nothing that you or any of your fellow Lightborn or even the Slayer will be able to do to stop it."_

"You know, I'd swear we heard something like this back when Ghaul showed up," Rega said to Morgan. "And funny thing, but I think he's dead too."

_"Boast and bluster all you want." _The witch's voice had lost the furious heat and sunk back into icy calm hate. _"There are other paths to power, paths that the Logic of the Sword view as blasphemous. But if it may stop the Slayer, then all paths are open."_

The portal had finished forming by this point, and what stepped through was a towering Hive Knight, an Abyssal Champion based on the adamantine armor that they could see. But the hardened, calcified Hive plating had been augmented by dark armor that gleamed with a nacreous sheen. It had covered much of the Champion's limbs, and the cracks in the Abyssal's chest had been filled in by this same metal. One of its eyes had been replaced by a gleaming gem that shone with a nauseous yellow light, a hue that was echoed in its remaining optics. One of its horns had been broken off long before, but the infectious metal had capped it with a blunt end. Its Hive Boomer had been fused to its arm, but the Arc glow of the weapon had likewise been replaced by the yellow glow. The other arm had a blade of the evil metal protruding from the top of one wrist.

Rega-7 looked up at the massive Abyssal, from the cracked-and-repaired armor to the broken horned crest, and she blinked. "Isn't that... the one we saw the Big Guy kill upstairs? That first one?"

Wahei nodded. "But it's been... revived. Augmented."

"A Cyber-Hive," Morgan grunted. "Well, that's gonna be in my nightmares from now on..."

_"Baalgar, Rage Unrelenting!"_ Kateäk intoned. _"You have been brought back with single purpose."_

The Cyber-Hive raised its boomer and pumped its arm, charging its weapon. _"KAR EN TUK!"_ it bellowed in Hive-speak.

* * *

**_Move. Stalk. Hunt._**

_Witch had conjured Demon of the Deep back from death. Violation of Enemy's beliefs, their sword logic. Witch was desperate. Knew she had no other options left. Nothing left to do but destroy the Demon again. No matter what experiments had been done to empower it. Flesh and bone, or metal and wire. Made no difference._

_**Rip and tear.**_

_Demon of the Deep enhanced with machinery and profane energies. Implanted with sorcerous cybernetics. Would not matter what it was made of. Cyber-Demon was the Enemy. Shoot it until it dies. Like all the rest. Lightbearers were stunned to see it. Drew chaingun and planted feet. Lightbearers chattered, moving to flanking positions, using cover._

_**No cover. No retreat. No mercy.**_

_Cyber-Demon shrugged off the bullets. Aimed its cannon, fired blast of poisonous energy. Could feel the toxin in it coming. Dashed aside, kept firing. It came for him, at speed. It was faster now. Ducked and rolled under its blade, snap-drew shotgun. It did not flinch. Only roared in rage and slammed its spiked fist into floor. Shockwave of flame erupted around it._

**_Stronger. Faster. Unrelenting._**

_Leapt backward from flames. Soldier hit it in back of head with rocket. Spun to face him and charged. Saw soldier conjure up towering barricade of Light. Cyber-Demon bellowed again and slammed fist into ground again. More sickening flames. Scholar was peppering its face with bullets, and it aimed its cannon toward her. Saw it change configuration. Multiple smaller blasts raining on her area. Scout whistled at it, then shot it in the chest with longshot rifle. It staggered._

_**There. Weakness. Target.**_

* * *

"There! See it?" Rega-7 called to her comrades as she dodged off of her perch and double-jumped away to another as the Cyber-Hive below tracked her with its mechanical eye. "That implant in its chest, the one with the weird yellow crystal glowing in it."

"It must be whatever Kateäk used to resurrect it." Wahei peeked from her cover and flung a spiraling nodule of Void Light toward the creature. It exploded in front of it, but it just bellowed and fired another blast of the poisonous energy toward her. She had to Blink away from her cover and then again to reach new cover, but it was already there, swinging its wrist-sword at her. She ducked and weaved away, which is when the Slayer intercepted the Cyber-Hive.

The Big Guy body-checked the sword-arm away, then snap-drew his sawed-off and fired it up at the monster's chest. He'd clearly figured out the implant was a weakness as well. Wahei saw it flash with that sick yellow glow, before the Cyber-Hive bellowed again and slammed its fist into the floor, causing it to erupt with flames again. She took a deep breath and Blinked away again, but this time had to sag against her cover to catch her breath, her Light needing time to recover.

The Slayer still stood among the flames, pumping another shotgun blast into the Abyssal's chest, but now it backhanded the Big Guy away across the Oubliette's floor. It turned toward him and began to raise its corrupted boomer, but then Morgan shouted out, "Eyes _down!_"

The Guardians all averted their gaze as Morgan's flashbang detonated in front of the Cyber-Hive's face. It bellowed in fury, raising its hand to clamp it over its blinded optics. Then the Titan exploded across the arena, coursing with lightning, crashing into the monster's chest with an explosion of Light and thunder. The Cyber-Hive staggered back again, roaring with rage.

"Chaukeedar," Rega muttered to her Ghost as she tried to get to another perch, "can you tell how much of an effect we're having? You Ghosts are usually good at judging how long before the enemies we face are likely to go down."

"Sorry," her Ghost whispered back. "This thing is just... _wrong_. I can't get any decent readings on it."

_Fantastic_, the Exo Hunter thought to herself as she lined up a shot. The bullet struck the glowing implant again, and the beast staggered, but then swiveled toward her. She saw its boomer change to a new configuration, before a continuous beam of the toxic energy blasted toward her. Cursing, she dove from the lower balcony, feeling her cloak melting from the beam's intensity.

The Exiled Prince smiled with steepled claws again. _"Astonishing. The Argent Nail has worked so much better than I had dared hope. Baalgar is a force to be reckoned with. Stronger, faster, and even if he is staggered by a blow that manages to affect him, it simply fuels his rage."_

Kateäk said nothing. While the Prince was right, and the corrupted form of the Abyssal Champion didn't seem to have been slowed in the least by the combined efforts of the Lightborn and the Slayer, she also noted that he wasn't able to concentrate his fire on any one of them. They were working in coordination, with barely any words being exchanged with the Slayer, luring Baalgar into positions where one or more of them could try to target the Argent Nail in his chest.

Finally, she turned an eye toward the Prince. _"Could they destroy the Nail?"_

He leaned his head to one side. _"There is no power at their disposal that could destroy it. Like affects like, Te Akka." _She bristled as he continued to use her witch-name instead of her ascended name, as decorum and protocol should indicate. But then, the Prince had never been one to respect the ways of his family and the Hive in general. There were other reasons why the Prince had been forsaken and banished. He continued, _"No, they cannot feasibly stop him. Even the Slayer's weapons will run dry eventually."_

She wished she could believe that a war of attrition would work. Had the Slayer not slaughtered countless broods in his first rampage across the worlds? And indeed, he'd already killed virtually the entire Chained Swarm. Her Wardens were dead. Her Champions were killed. Nar Eiru had managed to elude the Slayer's wrath, and was even now evacuating the broodmothers from this wretched world. If Baalgar could not stop the Slayer, then there was nothing that would.

_"I cannot take the risk," _she hissed. And with a twist of her namesakes, the Queen of Chains took the field.

* * *

**_Dash. Fire. Repeat._**

_Kept on the move. Cyber-Demon too quick to risk stopping for breath. Lungs burned. Muscles ached. Did not matter. Keep moving. Keep firing. Let Lightbearers draw its attention. Get close to take shot at target. Get back out again. Poison flames stung and sapped at strength. But it would not slow him._

_**Hold firm. Fight back. Always.**_

_Checked the big fucking gun. Still recharging. Scholar drew Cyber-Demon's gaze, soldier hit it with rocket. Staggered again, but unleashed flurry of flames in scholar's direction once more. Scout caught it in neck with grenades, but it kept its focus on scholar, who flash-moved away again. Concentrated fire from chaingun on the implant. Cyber-Demon refused to shift focus from scholar, raining fire at her again and again._

_**No. Stop it. Look at me.**_

_Dashed in close and drew shotgun. Click click. Boom boom. Two steel barrels of shot straight down its maw. Heard it bellow and bring its spiked fist down. Leapt up and caught it in the jaw. Headbutt. Stagger. No flames from Cyber-Demon this time. Dashed away as soldier launched rocket into its chest. Implant flashed and Enemy roared._

_**Stench. Close. Witch.**_

_Chains lashed out and dragged him away. One wrapped around throat. Air was choked, but rage was undimmed. Glared at witch as she shrieked hate. Could not draw bead on her with chains binding arms. Sniper fire came. Witch flew back, but did not release chains. Soldier charged in, dragged saw from within chains. Blade cut him free. Sliced away more chains._

_**Freed. Rage. Fight.**_

_Looked from Witch to Cyber-Demon. Two targets. Equal threats. Soldier stopped him, pointed at himself, pointed at Cyber-Demon. Lightbearers chattered and shifted focus to Cyber-Demon. Understanding dawned. Let them distract it. Focus on Witch. Her eyes flashed with malice, flung molten links. Dashed aside and poured chaingun bullets out. Shielded. But shields would not last forever. Chains lashed out again, dashed past their grasp, shotgun out. Click click. Boom boom._

**_Chains. Caught. Struggle._**

_Called upon the Light. Could not unleash full berserk rage. But enough to force trap loose. Dropped to floor, dashed away from poison cloud. Kept up chaingun fire. Witch called out to Cyber-Demon. Heard cannon fire behind him. Felt toxic flames sear armor and sap Light. Witch's shield fell as bullets took it down._

_**Now. Dash. Shotgun.**_

_Witch screamed in pain. Chains stabbed out. Armor held, but driven back. Dashed back in, but Witch unleashed blast of arcane might. Sent across arena. Lightbearers called out. Scout pointed to Witch. Switch targets. Glared at Cyber-Demon, reloading shotgun. Cyber-Demon glared back, charged its cannon._

_**Killed it once. Do it again. Bring it on.**_

* * *

"Keep an eye out for those chains, people!" Rega-7 worked the action on her sniper rifle and juked aside as a fiery link of chain was flung in her direction. Below, Wahei flung Void energy in front of Kateäk, obscuring her vision long enough for Morgan to charge in with his shotgun and use its powerful blast to deplete her shield. The witch's chains swung for him, but he popped a pulse grenade in front of him, and the Arc energy coursed up the chains and into the Hive ascendant's body. Her shriek wrenched at their ears, but was cut short as Rega fired a sniper round at her head.

One of the gnarled headdress' horns snapped off, and hung next to her head, only held on by the chains which wrapped around the entire array. Kateäk hissed and restored her shield, weaving a spell in her hands, and then Rega found herself held in place as chains erupted from her perch and snared her ankles, winding their way up her legs. "Need a little help!" the Hunter called out as she swapped to her SMG and tried to use it to shoot through the chains.

Wahei Blinked up beside her and called out, "Keep her off our backs, Morgan!" As the Titan drew the witch's attention by unloading a clip from his auto-rifle, the Warlock muttered to herself as she worked her fingers like plucking strings, Void Light shining around her palms. There was a flash of Void, and the chains fell away. Kateäk snarled and chanted again, and both Guardians dove away as a tangle of chains curled and lashed out of the walls toward them.

"Oi, she-witch!" The Queen of Chains swiveled to Morgan, whose rocket caught her shield square and instantly depleted it. As she reeled back, the Titan snapped out his shotgun and emptied its clip at her, setting her robes aflame. As he dropped back to reload, three chains pierced through his chest, wrapping back around his shoulders and neck.

_"Insolent Light!"_ The witch curled her claws, and Morgan groaned in pain as the chains wrapped around him pulled his arms and legs in directions they weren't supposed to. _"You cannot kill me. I am Ascendant!"_

"Maybe not," he grunted. "But I wasn't trying to kill you."

Wahei's grenade launcher thumped as it emptied its drum into Kateäk's unprotected back. The chains reeled away, and Morgan dropped to the floor, coughing up blood as he crawled to safe cover. Rega-7 dropped beside him to lend him some of her Light to heal, as the Warlock flung another Void grenade toward the furious witch. The Exo Hunter glanced at him as his wounds closed up and his armor was restored. "That was kind of a stupid thing, getting that close to her."

"Worth it, though." He reloaded his shotgun. "How's the Big Guy doing?"

Rega looked across the arena, where the Slayer was showcasing more of that impossible speed as he managed to keep one stride ahead of the Cyber-Hive's toxic blasts, before getting in close to fire at the corrupted implant in its chest. The monster didn't seem to be slowing down, but neither did the Slayer. "He might need some help. That thing isn't going down easy."

"I have an idea." Morgan glanced to one side. "Eyeball?"

His Ghost materialized beside him, the little drone looking nervous. "Yes?"

"You and the other Ghosts should get up high and out of reach." He looked to the Slayer, noting a flashing green light on the Braytech weapon slung across his back. "I think it's time we break out the big gun."

Rega-7 winced. "This is gonna hurt, isn't it?"

"Like nothing you've ever experienced."

* * *

**_Jump. Fire. Repeat._**

_Cyber-Demon would not stop. Bullets and shot were not slowing it. Implant showed no signs of breaking. Corrupted flames smoldered around him. Armor growing warm. Light going dim. Did not matter. Keep fighting. Never stop._

**_Always. Forever. Eternal._**

_Scout called out. Saw Witch was staggered and injured. Lightbearers squaring up to fight her again, but soldier caught his attention. Pointed over his shoulder, then at the Cyber-Demon. Understanding dawned. Big fucking gun. Checked on the weapon, saw it was charged. Gave the Lightbearers a nod. Dashed clear of Cyber-Demon's fire, back to the wall. Glanced to Lightbearers again. Scholar gave a thumbs-up. Scout gave a nod. Soldier took a breath and nodded as well. Faced the Cyber-Demon._

_**Bright. Green. Death.**_

_World went green and bright and pain. Plasma rolled out across arena. Cyber-Demon bellowed, flesh smoldering and burning. Metal scorched and pitted. Even Witch was shrieking in agony. Lightbearers screamed in pain and crumpled into ash. Saw drones flying back down to resurrect them. Turned back to Cyber-Demon. Remove the implant, pull it free, destroy it._

_**Rip. And. Tear.**_

* * *

Rega-7 doubled-over as Chaukeedar rezzed her. "Oh, sweet merciful heaven," she groaned. "I thought you were exaggerating, Morgan. But that _sucked_."

"I told you." Morgan was already back on his feet, though he was dry-heaving, too. "Wahei?"

The Awoken gave a wet moan of agony. "I'm contemplating resurrecting next time as a cat. And just lazing in the sun where nothing will ever hurt me."

Rega looked around. The chain-witch was beating furiously at the flames that smoldered in her robes. And the Cyber-Hive was horribly burned and struggling to stand. As she watched, the Slayer stowed the Blast Force Generator and drew out the chain-saw that he'd dragged with him from the labs above. The tool screamed as he ripped the cord, then plunged it into the monster's chest. The metal resisted, but the Slayer would not be denied. It went in with a horrific crunching noise, and he wrenched it through, until the sickly yellow implant popped up from the metal plating in the nacreous armor.

The Slayer ripped the saw back out of the Cyber-Hive and looked at the mangled mess it had become, then hurled it aside. He tore the implant from its chest and then used it like a club to smash the monster's remaining horn from its head. It gave a weak roar as it tried to raise its corrupted boomer, but the Slayer held the implant in one hand and the horn in the other and swung them at once, crushing the Abyssal's head between them. As the Champion fell back at last, the Slayer examined the implant, then gripped it with both hands before breaking it in half over his knee.

The shockwave of energy washed outward, stirring Rega's cloak, and sending Kateäk into a blind fury. The witch's howl pierced through their heads as she shrieked, _"You fools don't know what this creature is!"_ The Queen of Chains shook her head, the broken horn of her headdress swinging beside her. _"The Slayer is not your friend. He is not your ally. He destroys every world that he visits! The only salvation he brings is annihilation, and your world will be no different!"_

"Bold words coming from a queen without a court," Rega-7 reloaded her sniper rifle. "Your Swarm is dead. Your Champions are slain. The only thing left for the Big Guy to kill is you."

_"I am but one link in the chain that extends into the Blessed Deep,"_ Kateäk hissed. _"My Sovereign had charged me with this task, and when She sees that I have failed-"_

Morgan interrupted, "Yeah, she'll kill you, we get it."

_"No. She will instead take a personal interest. Your fate is still sealed, no matter what you've done here. All you have changed is the executor of your doom."_ The chain-witch gave a mirthless laugh. _"In comparison, you will wish for the mercy I would have shown."_

The Slayer raised the chaingun toward her, but she lashed out with a chain that sent it spinning out of his hands. In response, he started dashing toward her with that same preternatural speed, even as she began to twist in the air to escape into the Ascendant Realm. But the Guardians saw him grab for the chains that she had used against him, using them to haul himself close, fist closing around her tattered robes. Kateäk gave a scream of terror as they both vanished into nothingness.

The Guardians looked at one another, waiting for several seconds, but there was no sign of either. Morgan blinked. "Did they just-?"

Wahei nodded. "Big Guy hitched a ride on her way back to the Ascendant Plane. I didn't think that was possible."

Rega-7 sighed. "I get the impression that where the Slayer is concerned, 'impossible' is not a part of his vocabulary."

The Warlock hurried over to the spot where they had disappeared, studying the air and the surrounding floor, beginning to weave her hands with Void Light. "Let me see if I can find a way through. I know it's possible, I've seen Eris Morn do it lots of times. Even without queensfoil, I think I can just see the fault-lines in reality where the two planes meet, and if we can get some more Hive crystals down here, I should be able to force a way through and into the-"

"Not the time, Wahei." Both Titan and Warlock turned to the Hunter as Rega shook her head. "We were barely equipped to deal with an entire Hive prison hierarchy, plus three Abyssals, plus an Ascendant Hive. I'm not going into the shadow world on their home turf and go knocking on the door of a goddamn Hive Sovereign."

Wahei stared at her, agog. "But we'll be leaving the Big Guy trapped in there with them!"

"No. He's not trapped in there with them." Rega looked at Morgan, who gratefully picked up the fallen chaingun and stowed it back with his gear. The Titan nodded in agreement with her.

"They're trapped in there with _him_."

* * *

Afterword: Every time I thought I had a grasp on how I wanted to approach this chapter, I'd either lose the thread I had, or I'd be interrupted by something. Fortunately- if you can call the Covid Crisis "fortunate"- I had a lot of time on my hands, and the release of _Doom Eternal_ gave my creative juices they needed to finish up this chapter.

I'll say that I didn't really want to end Chapter 7 on a cliffhanger, but it felt right, and I needed time to think about how I wanted things to manifest there. I'm happy with it now.

There is one more chapter to come, but because you all have been patient, you'll note that I waited to post Chapter 8 until I had Chapter 9, the conclusion finished.

So why are you reading this at all? Go finish reading the story! I'll have more to say after that one. It's not gonna be a long chapter.

Jay 2K Winger

28-March-2020


	9. Chapter 9

TYPE: Transcription.

DESCRIPTION: Debrief Excerpt

PARTIES: Six [6]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Ikora Rey [IR]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Aunor Mahal [AM]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Zavala [Z]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Rega-7 [R7]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Donovan Morgan [DM]

ASSOCIATIONS: Abyssal [Hive]; Clovis Bray; Kateäk; Mars; Morgan, Donovan; Ohr, Wahei; Rega-7; Slayer; UAC

/AUDIO UNAVAILABLE/

/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS.../

[IR:01] Describe again for the record this 'Slayer' you encountered.

[R7:01] What can I say that I haven't said already? I've never seen another Lightbearer like him.

[WO:01] He's humanoid, but his armor covered up everything, and he never spoke. So I can't say for certain what he is.

[R7:02] Someone that size shouldn't be able to move as fast as he did.

[WO:02] He's a Lightbearer, but he barely seems to use it, I think he uses it to increase his strength and speed, I mean we all do that, to some extent, but never quite to the extent that he did, because he was often fighting Hive with his bare hands. He was a very angry person, clearly the object of his rage being the Hive, and whenever we ran out of Hive to kill, he sniffed out more. I don't know if he was always that way, or if years fighting Hive burned out anything human inside him. And that's supposing that he was even human to begin with-

[IR:02] Breathe, Wahei.

[Z:01] And you say he helped you track down this 'Kateäk' figure. 'The Queen of Chains?'

[R7:03] That's right. Like Wahei was saying, he seemed to be able to smell the Hive, especially the stronger ones. Wahei seems to think that the swarm we fought down there had been the ones to originally imprison the Slayer down there, using some kind of Hive magic.

[Z:02] We are still attempting to reach this 'U.A.C.' facility. It appears that during your exfiltration, the degraded computer systems began sealing it up. Thus far, we have not been able to restore access.

[AM:01] Tell me about this 'Slayer's' ability to ... absorb energy from Hive crystals?

[R7:04] Yes, he can somehow metabolize Hive energy with his Light and use it to heal himself and repair his armor.

[WO:03] His armor can also withstand a direct hit from a Void Grenade, though it did leave it cracked and seriously damaged. But he found a crystal in the UAC Applied Sciences labs and crushed it in his fist. He used the energy to just... heal himself.

[AM:02] You are mistaken, Warlock Wahei. It is not possible for a Lightbearer to heal themselves without the aid of a Ghost.

[WO:04] I know what I saw. I was as close to him as I am to you right now. Ask the others, they saw it too.

[DM:01] Yup.

[R7:05] Saw it with my own eyes. Our Ghosts can corroborate us.

[AM:03] Then clearly your Ghosts were compromised somehow by whatever magics the Hive had been using down there. You did not see what you think you saw.

[Z:03] Enough, Aunor. If the fireteam say it happened, then we must take them at their word.

[IR:03] This 'Slayer' was able to defeat three Abyssal Champions?

[DM:02] That's right. Single-handed. Saw him tackle one of them- like, physically tackle- and then just shoot out the back of its head with a sawed-off shotgun.

[AM:04] That is not possible, Titan Morgan. All accounts of Abyssal Champions indicate it takes sustained, concentrated gunfire to be able to weaken them.

[DM:03] Look, I get that you don't wanna believe what we're telling you, but if you're going to keep denying it happened, then I don't know why we're bothering to do this debrief. You have our statements. It's all in there.

[AM:05] Yes, and by your account, you allowed this alleged Lightbearer to relieve you of your primary weapon- an exotic weapon of known rarity- and you made no effort to recover it.

[DM:04] Hey-

[AM:06] Furthermore, you then allowed him to steal a Clovis Bray prototype heavy weapon of significant firepower, and further allowed him to disappear into Hive Ascendant Space with it, effectively putting it in the hands of the enemy.

[DM:05] Hey! You want to accuse me of "allowing" anything, then just go ahead and clap me in irons and lock me up. I was under the impression that the Vanguard was conducting this debrief, but apparently the Praxic Order can just barge in wherever they like nowadays. The way you're talking, sounds like you wanna call me a Dredgen or something.

[AM:07] You are known to have in your possession a 'Breakneck' auto-rifle that you won in Gambit competition. I am sure if I were allowed to examine your full arsenal, I would find more evidence to support-

[IR:04] Aunor.

[AM:08] Ma'am.

[IR:05] You are here as a courtesy. Your personal beliefs or not, the fireteam has helped remove at least four major Hive forces from the board.

[AM:09] Three.

[Z:04] I beg your pardon?

[AM:10] Per the fireteam's statements, the only Hive majors we can confirm have been eliminated are the Abyssal Champions. Kateäk escaped into the Ascendant Realm and took the Slayer with her. They did not see her die, so we cannot be sure of anything.

[WO:05] Mahal?

[AM:11] Yes?

[WO:06] By her own admission, Kateäk was Ascendant. If we'd killed her in that Oubliette, she'd have recovered and could have come back later. The Slayer had her literally in his hands when he got pulled through. There is no way that she could have survived a point-blank attack by him.

[AM:12] I would like to take you at your word, Warlock Wahei, but you are a known student of Eris Morn, a notorious dabbler in Darkness magic-

[IR:06] Enough, Aunor! If not for Eris Morn, then we would have lost the Moon, and the Taken War. Leave us.

[AM:13] Ma'am. Commander.

[R7:06] Permission to continue, sir?

[Z:05] Go ahead.

[R7:07] What are we going to do about the Slayer?

[Z:06] Do? Nothing.

[R7:08] Sir?

[Z:07] Between the renewed activity around the Lunar Hellmouth, the remnants of the Red Legion's last desperate attempts to strike back at us, and other intelligence coming to us about coming threats, I cannot spare any fireteams to go on a rescue mission, no matter who they may be attempting to rescue.

[DM:06] That's a bit rich, considering that 'Young Wolf' Guardian went and-

[IR:07] That Guardian has always been something of a rogue element, and because of that, we in the Vanguard cannot take responsibility for what they do. But Commander Zavala is right. You three are going to be reassigned to the Lunar patrols soon.

[R7:09] ...Ma'am.

[IR:08] I know you don't like leaving anyone behind, Rega. But the needs of the many come before one man. And if what you're saying is true, then he'll keep fighting on without you.

[Z:08] Indeed. So let him walk through the ascendant realms, standing against the Darkness where others falter. Until we need him again.

[IR:09] May that day never come.

* * *

The blasted landscape of the Ascendant Realm spun in darkness as Kateäk emerged, born down to the ground by the weight of the Slayer upon her. She wove a length of chain into a metal ball and drove it at him to drive him off of her, but as she drifted away, he caught the links in one hand. She reeled, but he wound the chain around his fist and slowly dragged her toward him. _"No! Release me! You cannot defeat me!"_

The Slayer said nothing, merely held his glare on her as he planted his feet and hurled her bodily over his shoulder to the ground. The air driven from her, she gasped and clawed at him, forming a molten ball of metal in one hand, but he snatched at the chain still wrapped around his fist and then planted his foot into her shoulder. The wrenching of bone from socket and flesh from joint was pure agony. She flung another chain toward him with her remaining arm, but he caught it beneath the sharpened hook, like it were a snake. With his other hand, he drew his sawed-off and fired, separating the remaining arm from her shoulder.

Wailing and writhing on the ground, the Queen of Chains began to chant, but this was choked off as his empty hand slammed down around her throat, hauling her up before him. _"My Sovereign will-"_

The Slayer thrust the steel barrels of the shotgun through her maw and with another bellow of thunder, Kateäk was silenced at last.

He dropped her carcass and turned his back, beginning to stalk away, but paused as he took a deep breath, turning to regard the shadowy realm before him. There came a terrible attention focusing on him. His head throbbed as he saw with one eye, the devastated ruins around him, covered in grave-grass and stone. He saw also with the other eye the bleak majesty of a vast chamber, with the hint of a throne in the distance. And in his mind, he perceived the unnatural roiling shapelessness of the Deep Darkness.

As he stood there, lungs filled with the stench of more Enemies than he could possibly count in a thousand ages, he beheld a Sovereign. There was- the howling of a gale / the peal of regal laughter / the screech of dying atoms- the declaration that here, at last, the Slayer would be destroyed.

He said nothing, merely glared into the ruins / throne / emptiness as he reloaded his shotgun. He knew what he had to do.

**_Rip and tear. Until it is done._**

* * *

**_-END-_**

* * *

Afterword: Hoo boy, did this one take off.

What began as a random thought between me and a friend online- a Guardian from Destiny that was like the Slayer- turned into my unquestionably most popular piece of writing I've posted anywhere. It's gotten the most hits and likes and follows of any of my stories on FF Dot Not, AO3, and all the chapters have gotten a few upvotes over on r/DestinyJournals, too.

I know at least one reader (you know who you are) was disappointed because it didn't have any demons in it and that it felt more like I was dressing up the Doom stuff in a Destiny context. And yes, this is entirely correct. It felt the easiest way to reconcile the ideas in my head, and I'd argue that it worked out.

Presently, this is the end of the story. I have no current plans on continuing it past this point. Maybe if the inspiration comes, be it from _Doom Eternal_ or future seasons/expansions in _Destiny 2_, then I may continue the story. But this feels like the sort of stopping point that fits the myth of the Slayer. Locked in a blasted hellscape, facing off against the unhallowed legions, literally too angry to die, and prepared to fight alone with one mandate. To rip and tear. Until it is done.

Thanks again, everyone, for all your support!

Jay 2K Winger

28-Mar-2020


End file.
